What to Expect at a Well-Woman Exam

After a girl passes through puberty, her reproductive system becomes an entirely new area of health — and an important one to look after. Although we offer targeted adolescent gynecology services to teens, once you enter adulthood, it becomes especially important to keep up with your well-woman exams.

At Bay Area Physicians for Women’s Health, our team prides itself on helping women to successfully navigate every stage of their reproductive lives and the foundation of this care starts with the well-woman exam.

If you’re new to our practice or you’re transitioning to adulthood and you want to know what to expect during your well-woman exam, read on.

Gathering data

One of the important components of a well-woman exam is to collect data so that we can track your health year over year.

So, when you first arrive, you can expect that one of our staff will first:

• Weigh you
• Record your height, if necessary
• Measure your blood pressure

From there, when you sit down with our provider, we continue our information gathering. You can expect that we will go over your medical history, as well as your family’s medical history. Many gynecologic conditions can be influenced by genetics, so this information is important in how we monitor your health.

Physical and pelvic exam

Once we finish our information gathering, we perform a physical exam, which often includes a pelvic exam. Unless we’re looking for something specific, these exams will typically include:

• A pelvic exam during which we look inside your vagina
• Breast and abdominal palpitations to look for abnormalities
• An evaluation of your overall appearance

Though some of these examinations might pose some momentary discomfort, there’s nothing painful, and we get through them quickly.

Important screenings during your well-woman exam

As the name suggests, your well-woman exam is designed to ensure your wellness, so we may perform timely screenings and testing to stay one step ahead of your reproductive health.

As an example, every few years, you can expect to have a Pap test or HPV test to screen for cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society credits this type of screening for cutting cervical cancer rates by more than half since the 1970s.

Breast cancer screenings are also important, and aside from our physical breast exam, we will arrange your mammograms in a timely manner.

During your well-woman exam, we want you to speak frankly with us so that we can perform other important testing, such as testing for sexually transmitted infections. These infections are still making their rounds in alarming numbers and in 2023 alone, there were more than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia in the United States.

Other things we accomplish during your well-woman exam

Well-woman exams can change from one visit to the next depending upon your needs and circumstances. For example, if you want to join the millions of women who use contraception, we can discuss birth control options during your well-woman exam.

Going in the other direction, perhaps you want to start a family, and we can discuss how to optimize your chances of getting pregnant.

Wherever you are in life, we meet you and tailor your well-woman exam to your needs.

If you have any more questions about what will happen during your well-woman exam, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in Mobile, Alabama.