Women’s Wellness
...in Your 40’s
In your 40’s, you may be taking care of everyone at home—growing children and aging parents—while also working hard to achieve milestones in your career.
Self-care is especially important during this phase of your life. Along with the demands of everyday responsibilities, your body is going through subtle hormonal changes that can raise your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
Diet and exercise may play an even more important role in your 40’s as women tend to gain weight each decade of life. If you can make healthy changes in your 40’s, they’ll serve you well for the next few decades of life.
If you haven’t already started to watch your bone health, do it now. As you move into menopause, it’s an important time for you to prevent osteoporosis, a condition that weakens bones.
Your lifestyle plays an important role.
Your lifestyle plays an important role.
Measures you can take to reduce bone loss include:
- Calcium (1200mg daily)
- Vitamin D (2500-5000 I.U. daily)
- Weight bearing exercise
- Smoking cessation
- Avoidance of heavy alcohol use
Contraception options change as you get older.
That’s because some birth control pills may raise some women’s risk of heart disease and blood clots.
You may want to think about a switch to a low-dose oral progesterone-only contraceptive or an IUD. Or maybe consider more permanent birth control.
Make sure you get regular mammograms to check for breast cancer.
The American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) recommends that women start mammograms at age 40. Every woman should start receiving an annual or biannual mammogram to screen for breast cancer.
At age 45, she should begin to have colon cancer screening.
Thyroid disease and diabetes are common as a woman ages, our office can provide screening for these conditions as well as cholesterol assessment, kidney and liver screening.
These tests should be done fasting. Let our staff know if you want to be screened so we can schedule an appointment in the morning when you can be fasting (nothing to eat after midnight).
Learn more…
Women in their 40’s may experience a wide range of issues:
- Pregnancy
- Contraceptive options
- Long lasting contraception: Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)
- Permanent methods of contraception: Tubal ligation
- Changes in the menstrual cycle- Heavy or irregular flow
- Pelvic Pain-painful periods, non-menstrual pelvic pain, pain with intercourse
- PMS symptoms
- Perimenopausal changes
- Cancer screening needs
As private independent physicians, we know how special and important the one-on-one relationship is between a patient and doctor. The providers at County Obstetrics & Gynecology have the knowledge, experience, resources, and expertise to treat women through all phases of life.