When Should Older Men Stop Having Sex?
It’s true that getting older often brings benefits like greater experience and a more refined perspective on life. But from a purely physical point of view, most people associate aging with wrinkles, reduced athletic capability, and a decrease in sexual performance. But sexual dysfunction and age aren’t as clearly connected as you might think, with some men maintaining sexual activity well into old age.
Since sexual activity inevitably changes over time, when should men stop having sex? The good news is that, generally speaking, you don’t have to stop! People’s sexual appetites and capabilities vary because everyone’s aging process and sexuality are at least somewhat unique. But what happens if your body is exhibiting symptoms that make it harder to have sex as you age? Let’s take a closer look at some of these issues and how to treat and mitigate them.
Sexuality Changes Over Time
It can take older men more time to become aroused, and they may need longer recovery times after orgasming. Erectile dysfunction is also quite common as men age, with up to two-thirds of men over 70 years old reporting symptoms. From a medical perspective, this is often related to declining testosterone levels, and can also be affected by many age-related conditions and the medications used to mitigate them.
Intimacy is crucial for everyone, including older men. In addition to adjusting medications and how men may treat their other physical health conditions, it also useful for older men to change how they think about sexual performance. For example, if age or health-related problems prevent or reduce your sexual performance, it’s often a great idea to focus more on sexual activities that don’t need an erection or ejaculation to be pleasurable.
How to Stay Sexually Active as an Older Man
While it’s expected that the vast majority of people will experience a decline in sexual activity as they enter their latter years, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have to stop having sex altogether or even much at all.
Along with staying healthy by practicing good nutrition and regular exercise, older men should treat medical conditions as they come up and, if required, use preventative medication to stop issues such as erectile dysfunction. This can help you maintain fulfilling sexual relationships as you age and establish greater peace of mind about sexual performance.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
For reliable and satisfying sexual activity as men age, incorporating good physical health activities usually means better sexual health and stronger sexual desire. Even basic things like regular exerise, a balanced diet, and kicking bad habits like smoking or drinking too much alcohol can all contribute to a healthy sex like even into your 70s and 80s.
Using Erectile Dysfunction (ED) Medication
While it’s true that erectile dysfunction can occur in men of all ages, there’s a much higher incidence rate in older men. In particular, research has found that men have about a 40 percent risk of encountering some degree of ED in their 40s, increasing subtintailyl more every decade.
While this may seem intimidating, there are great modern ED prescriptions that can make it easy to maintain an erection, even if you’re experiencing symptoms of ED. If you’re experiencing such symptoms, be sure to talk with your doctor to get a better understanding of the best medication options for you.
Treat Any Underlying Medical Issues
It’s possible for many sexual performance challenges to be caused or worsened by specific health conditions. For instance, erectile dysfunction often results from high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, diabetes, and other physical conditions that become bigger issues as men age.
If you have a chronic disease or other health conditions that could affect your sexual performance, keep in close contact with your healthcare provider and, potentially, use medication to control your condition(s)’s symptoms for a more satisfying quality of life.
It’s also crucial to take an active approach to maintaining your health by checking for age-related medical issues that could impact your sexual satisfaction and capability. By staying on top of your overall health, you may be able to address issues as they come up for improved health and sexual performance across the decades.
Taking Action
If you’ve been feeling dissatisfied with your sexual performance or sex life in general as a result of age, we hope this info will help you take action toward a more rewarding sex life in your later years. By speaking with a medical professional about potential medications and physical or emotional issues related to sex, you’ll be taking the first steps to a better quality of life.
Feel free to reach out and contact us with any questions about how to treat and mitigate symptoms of age-related sexual decline. here are great ways to adapt to your body’s changing needs, and by exploring these possibilities, you can maintain a great sex life for years to come!
Everybody starts the new year with the best of intentions. There’s something so exciting about a completely blank slate, knowing that this next year of your life can be anything, but sadly, keeping New Year’s resolutions is rarely as simple as perseverance and willpower. There are a lot of factors that can make it difficult to stick to your goals for the year, whether you’re hoping to get in shape, get more organized, quit a bad habit, or even just have a happier year than you’ve had in a while. However, if you can address the external factors that are holding you back from achieving your goals, you might find that suddenly everything, not just your New Year’s resolutions, becomes easier. Here are some common reasons that New Year’s resolutions fail, and what you can do to ensure that you don’t fall victim to them.
Your Goal Was Not Specific Enough
When setting a goal for the year, vagueness is never going to be your friend. Not having a clear and direct path to take will make it difficult for you to get started in the first place, meaning you’ll essentially have failed before you begin. Alternatively, even if you do make significant progress towards a goal, if you haven’t set yourself a benchmark of success, you’ll never feel that you’ve made enough progress, and you won’t be satisfied with your own hard work. Setting very clear and concrete goals is the way to go with New Year’s resolutions, so for example, don’t set a goal of just “lose weight,” instead set a goal to “lose 20 pounds by June.” Instead of “get organized,” set a goal of “set up a filing system for my important documents and donate half of what’s in my closet.” Having these definitive end goals to work towards will make a huge difference!
You Have No Support System or Accountability
Reaching a goal is not easy, and reaching a goal alone is next to impossible. If you’re trying to charge bravely ahead into your New Year’s resolutions with no one in your corner to back you up, it’s going to be way more difficult than it would be if you had a support system in place. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have someone working towards the same goal as you, just that you need a person or group who can celebrate your successes with you and encourage you when you’re struggling. However, if you can work towards the same goal with another person, that’s great too! Having other people who are going to be able to hold you accountable is incredibly important for New Year’s resolutions.
You Didn’t Celebrate Small Successes
The value of recognizing smaller milestones on your way to achieving your larger goal is frequently overlooked and can lead to you being discouraged about the process. If you set out to lose twenty pounds this year, for example, you might think it’s a waste of time to do something nice for yourself to celebrate when you lose five or ten pounds, but recognizing your own small successes and helping keep yourself motivated is more important than you might think. If you don’t allow yourself to appreciate how far you’ve come before you’ve reached your final goal, it’s easy to forget that you’re putting in a lot of hard work to do something good for yourself and deserve a little celebration along the way. Set yourself some milestones that you think are good places on your journey for a quick victory lap, and then do something fun when you reach them, like dinner with friends, a trip to the spa, or buying yourself a small treat.
Your Hormones Were Unbalanced
There are many other physical or mental reasons that you might have trouble sticking with a New Year’s resolution, such as high levels of stress, poor sleep, low mood, and more. Surprisingly, a lot of these challenges can actually come back to the same root cause: your hormones might be out of balance. Nearly every function in the body relies on your hormones, and if they aren’t present in the levels that they need to be, this can result in the kind of symptoms that make keeping New Year’s resolutions feel impossible, such as mood swings and irritability, not getting enough sleep, brain fog or impulsivity, and even the inability to shed stubborn pounds.
Getting your hormones balanced is one of the best things you can do for your New Year’s resolutions, and also for your overall well-being this year. With hormone imbalances as a likely root for many mental and physical issues you may be facing, coming into Renewed Vitality for testing and treatment might just be the missing piece you needed to start feeling better. Contact us to schedule a consultation today, and see how rebalancing your hormones could change your life.
The holidays are a time full of fun food and drink, and celebrating with a glass of champagne or a few cocktails is all part of the fun of this special time of year. However, now that January has arrived and brought around New Year’s resolutions, it’s common for people to step back and take a look at what they’ve been putting into their body over the past few weeks. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a few drinks, many people find that they’ve overindulged during the holidays and feel that it would be beneficial to cut back. That’s where the idea of a dry January comes in.
Dry January involves completely avoiding alcohol for an entire month. Unsurprisingly, between the holidays and the stress of the ongoing pandemic, many people are feeling like they might have been drinking a bit too much lately and are considering cutting back. Having a dry January can have a lot of benefits on your physical and mental health, so if you’re taking part in this 31-day challenge, here are some of the perks that you can expect to see!
Weight Loss or Decreased Bloating
If you’re a regular drinker, once you cut out alcohol you might notice the effects on your physique. Alcoholic beverages are liquid calories, especially carbohydrate-heavy beers or sugary cocktails. Additionally, like all high-calorie drinks, alcohol adds to your calorie intake without keeping you full, which raises your intake even further since you’ll still need to eat. Alcohol also forces your body to retain water, so even if you don’t actually shed any pounds during your dry January, you might find that you look slimmer or more toned thanks to decreased puffiness and bloating.
Better Hormone Function
Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers, and alcohol can impair the function of the glands that release them. Because hormones control just about everything in your body, this means that habitual drinking can have widespread effects on everything from your blood sugar to your sleep to your cortisol levels. If you’re a regular drinker, you might not even notice how much your alcohol intake is affecting you until you do something like a dry January. As the month goes on, you’ll probably notice that you just feel better, and can’t really put your finger on what specifically improved. In reality, it’s probably your hormone function!
Stronger Immune System
While research on this subject is limited, there is evidence to suggest that drinking alcohol, especially binge drinking, can suppress your immune system. Alcohol abuse is associated with a higher risk for infectious diseases due to its effects on your immune cells. Especially now during the pandemic, maintaining a healthy immune response is on a lot of people’s minds, and while cutting out alcohol is certainly not a replacement for proper self-protection against Covid-19 and other winter diseases like the flu, it will certainly do your immune system some good.
Improved Relationship with Alcohol
You might think that your relationship with alcohol is perfectly fine and you’re not dependent on it at all, but taking a month off for a dry January might give you a completely different perspective on how drinking fits into your life. You may find that you mindlessly drink more out of habit than anything else, or that the nightly cocktail or glass of wine you usually reach for to relax isn’t actually necessary for you to unwind after a long day. On top of that, taking a break from drinking will alter your alcohol tolerance, so that going forward, when you indulge on a special occasion, you won’t need to drink as much to feel the effects.
More Money for Other Things
Let’s face it: alcohol is expensive. When it’s a habitual expense that’s so ingrained into your regular budget, it’s easier to forget about it, but the more you drink, the more money you’re dropping at bars and restaurants and on trips to the liquor store. Taking a month off from booze might have some effects on your bank account that you’ll be pretty happy about. You may find at the end of the month that you like having the extra cash too much to return to drinking the same amount! Whether you’re tucking the extra money away in a savings account for a rainy day or spending it on a new and exciting hobby, you’re sure to find uses for it that are just as good (if not better) than spending it on alcohol.
Whether you’re looking to improve your physical health or your mental health, taking a dry January is sure to give you the boost you’re looking for. And if you’re late to the party this month, take a dry February! The hashtag might not be as popular, but you’ll still reap the benefits of reassessing your relationship with alcohol and prioritizing your own wellbeing.
Thoughtful and meaningful holiday gifts are a great way to show your friends and family that you care about them, but what if you’re looking for a gift that will prompt them to care for themselves a little bit more? The holidays are such a busy and stressful time of year, and if you have a loved one that you think could use a little inspiration to do something nice for themselves, there are some great options out there for gifts that will encourage self care! Whether you’re getting these for someone else or maybe even putting them on your own wishlist, these gift ideas will help provide an incentive for anyone to make a little time for themselves.
Weighted Blanket
Although you might second-guess yourself while trying to wrap a present like this, a weighted blanket makes an excellent gift this time of year. Providing all the benefits of a comfy, cozy blanket, they also help to reduce stress, improve sleep, and promote relaxation overall. Some studies even suggest that they can be helpful in alleviating chronic pain. Make sure you do your research on the correct weight and size to buy for the person in question so that the blanket is safe to use, and wish your loved one some wonderful, relaxing winter’s naps!
Journal
Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper is a very healthy habit to get into, but a lot of people find it challenging. Journaling can seem like a big time sink because of the expectation that you’ll write pages and pages each time you sit down. Some also struggle with a lack of ideas for things to write about, or simply find it hard to keep on top of journaling every day. A solution to this problem that makes a great gift is a journal with daily prompts for things to write about. It encourages reflection, is a great self care tool, and is easy to keep up with every day!
Spa Gift Card
If there’s one way to really take a moment for yourself and unwind, it’s a day at the spa indulging in things like massages, and the best incentive to take a spa day is a gift card. After all, if you don’t use it, it’ll go to waste, and no one wants that. A gift card or certificate to a local spa will give your loved ones the perfect excuse to spend a few hours prioritizing themselves and their own relaxation.
Oil Diffuser
Essential oils have many different properties that can be beneficial for a person’s physical and mental wellbeing, such as lavender for relaxation or or citrus for a mood boost and some energy. One of the most popular ways to use essential oils is in a diffuser, which can make your loved one’s home smell fantastic as well as being an act of self care. You can get diffusers for a range of different prices, so order one along with a few bottles of popular oils to make a wonderful holiday present. If the person has pets, however, just be careful which oils you choose. Some can be harmful to dogs, cats, or other animals!
Yoga Mat
Sometimes self care isn’t just about facials and bubble baths, but about more literal ways of taking care of yourself, such as ensuring you get enough sleep and eat nutritious foods. Exercise is another very important part of self care, and getting in the habit of doing some kind of physical movement at least a few times a week will have great benefits for your health and mental wellbeing. A yoga mat makes a great gift for anyone in your life who is looking to become more active in the new year, and there are many stylish ones out there to choose from.
Everyone could use an excuse to engage in a little more self care as this year winds to a close, so whether you’re shopping for family, friends, or even yourself, these gift options will all be fantastic ideas that will encourage more self care and better mental health. Make sure to keep them in mind as you finish up your last minute holiday shopping!
Your thyroid is a small gland at the front of your neck that produces a lot of your body’s hormones. When your thyroid, for one reason or another, doesn’t produce hormones correctly, you either have hypothyroidism, which is when hormone levels are too low, or hyperthyroidism, when they’re too high. Issues with the thyroid can affect people of all ages and can seriously influence your health across the board, but a lot of the time these conditions aren’t easy to catch early on because their symptoms can be subtle, and you might think that they don’t mean anything or that they have another cause. All health issues are best caught early on, including thyroid problems, so if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms and other explanations aren’t adding up, it’s possible that there’s something going on with your thyroid.
Digestive Problems
A lot of symptoms of thyroid problems can present on opposite ends of a spectrum depending on whether you’re dealing with hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, and digestion is definitely one of them. With hyperthyroidism, you may have very loose stools, and with hypothyroidism, you may find yourself frequently constipated. These issues can of course have many other causes, but if you’re experiencing other signs of thyroid dysfunction, and especially if these digestive problems are unusual for you, it’s important not to dismiss them.
Mood Problems
Higher or lower levels of hormones than what your body needs can lead to your moods changing in ways that are difficult to handle, causing you to potentially struggle with anger or low moods when you didn’t previously. If anxiety, depression, or anger issues aren’t things you typically struggle with and now you’re experiencing them for seemingly no reason, your thyroid might be to blame.
Unexpected Changes in Weight
This is a big one that you should never ignore if it happens to you. If you notice a big change in your weight suddenly or unexpectedly, it’s a sign that something is going on. This can mean weight gain but also weight loss, and although you may be pleased to find yourself mysteriously shedding pounds, unexplained weight loss is as much of a health red flag as unexplained weight gain is, and both should be discussed with your doctor if they happen to you.
Hair Loss
If you find yourself losing more hair than usual in the shower or when you brush it, or if your hair is just looking really thin and you’re finding balding spots, a thyroid issue might be the culprit. As with many warning signs of thyroid problems, this once can have some other causes. If you’re a man and baldness runs in your family, for example, then thinning hair might not surprise you, or if you’re under a serious amount of stress in your life, you might find your hair starting to fall out in noticeable amounts, but if you notice your hair thinning along with other signs of thyroid issues, you should discuss it with your doctor.
Changes in How You Experience Temperature
This sign can be subtle and difficult to notice, but if you find yourself feeling much hotter or colder than normal, or having less tolerance to hot and cold weather, it can indicate that your thyroid isn’t functioning properly. This one mostly comes down to your personal baseline. Some people just run hot or cold! But if you suddenly want to keep your coat and gloves on inside the house all the time and can’t figure out why, or you’re red-faced and sweaty on a day where the heat normally wouldn’t have bothered you as much, it’s not something to just sweep aside.
Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are treatable, but ignoring the signs of these conditions can have serious effects on your health and your life, so if you notice symptoms such as these that are unusual and not easily explained by something else, don’t ignore them. Getting tested for thyroid problems is simple and can help you get the treatment you need. If you live in the Berks County area and you suspect there may be something wrong with your thyroid, contact Renewed Vitality. We are the premier facility for hormone replacement therapy in the area, and we are ready to help you.
Every woman knows to expect menopause as she ages. The average age to experience it is 51 for women in the United States, but any time between ages 45 to 55 is considered within the normal range. Menopause before age 45 is considered early, and before age 40 is premature.
So, how do you know if you’re in premature menopause? For starters, there is a difference between menopause and perimenopause, which is the process of heading into menopause itself. When you’ve gone more than twelve months without a period, you’ve entered menopause, but prior to this as your ovulation slows, you’ll be in perimenopause and begin experiencing the symptoms that you always hear people talking about– hot flashes and chills, mood changes, sleep problems, and of course, irregular periods. A changing period is the main sign of menopause, and while there are many reasons to have irregular or missing periods, you should always discuss it with your doctor. If you’re presenting other symptoms and not within the typical age range, they may diagnose you with premature menopause. There are many reasons that this might happen to you, and they will help you to determine the cause and cope with the changes. Here are some of the reasons you might begin menopause prematurely.
Previous Illnesses
If you’ve undergone chemotherapy, had your ovaries removed, or had any other treatment or procedure that would damage your estrogen production, it may lead to premature menopause. However, damaged or missing ovaries are not the only potential cause, and you can still experience premature menopause if your ovaries are intact.
Genetics
It is likely that there is a genetic component to when you will naturally begin menopause. If other explanations don’t fit, this may be what it comes down to. If your mother experienced menopause early or prematurely, it’s possible that you will as well.
Lifestyle
There are some habits that you might’ve had (or might still have) in previous years that can affect your reproductive health, with smoking being a major one. Long-term or regular smoking has been proven to have a correlation to earlier menopause than that seen in women who don’t smoke. Other lifestyle choices that may contribute are vegetarianism, lack of exercise, lack of sun exposure, and low BMI.
Chromosomal Defects
There are several chromosomal abnormalities that can lead to premature menopause. Most of them do this by affecting the function of the ovaries. Turner syndrome, pure gonadal dysgenesis, and Fragile X syndrome are all possible causes. If you or any family members have premature menopause and you suspect that one of these conditions might be the cause, it’s important to discuss genetic testing with your doctor.
Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases can cause a whole host of health issues, including premature menopause. When inflammation caused by these diseases affects the ovaries, their function is altered or stopped. Rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid problems are potential autoimmune diseases that may be the cause of your premature menopause.
Epilepsy
Epilepsy can sometimes cause the ovaries to fail prematurely, and resultantly lead to early or premature menopause in about 14% of women with the disease.
Depending on the cause of your premature menopause, hormone therapy might be a good treatment option for you to help lessen the symptoms. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, like the kind offered at Renewed Vitality, can improve your quality of life during perimenopause and menopause. Most of the adverse symptoms of menopause stem from a change in your body’s estrogen levels, and by adding in estrogen that is no longer being produced, some of those symptoms can be eased. Bioidentical hormones are exactly what they sound like– they’re biologically identical to the ones naturally produced in your body. Renewed Vitality’s bioidentical estrogen is 100% natural, created using a plant-based source. Their exact chemical structure matches the kind made by the human body, and their natural makeup allows them to be more easily processed than artificial varieties.
If you are suffering from premature menopause, or if the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause in general are causing you distress, contact Renewed Vitality to ask about our bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. It may be able to help you feel a bit more like yourself again.
We’re excited to announce that Debra Hampton joined Renewed Vitality in early 2020 and has been doing great work ever since. She’s the newest member of our team and a board-certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner with the National Certification Corporation.
Debra completed her undergraduate degree at Eastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She continued to pursue her love of education by graduating with a Master’s Degree from Drexel University in 2012. She received BioIdentical Hormone Replacement training under the supervision of Rebecca McClure CRNP.
While working as a Labor and Delivery Nurse, she decided to expand her passion by specializing in women’s health so she could provide care for women throughout their lifespans, from adolescence through menopause. Now with more than 27 years years of experience both in the hospital and office setting, she’s committed to providing excellent patient care and satisfying the medical needs of each patient.
Debra’s professional emphasis has been focused on preventative medicine and maintaining wellness. She enjoys building meaningful relationships with her patients and working together to provide them with education for greater empowerment regarding their health care decisions.
Obstetrics was Debra’s passion for many years, until she started training under Rebecca McClure, Renewed Vitality’s practitioner. Debra saw how McClure was changing the lives of others with BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy and how she treated issues associated with aging. Men and women are able to regain their life back by improving their quality of life.
Since the beginning of her career, Debra has enjoyed caring for women in all stages of their lives and strives to make a positive difference in their health journeys. Renewed Vitality helps make that difference happen, and is the main reason why she decided to join the team. Everyone at Renewed Vitality works as a family, doing their best to positively impact patient lives.
Debra’s favorite thing about working at Renewed Vitality is being able to engage with wonderful patients and staff. Renewed Vitality offers a welcoming atmosphere not just with the staff, but with each and every person who comes to the office. According to Debra, working at Renewed Vitality makes it possible to build meaningful relationships with patients and share in the excitement of their lives.
Debra’s work helps Renewed Vitality impact patient well beings by taking the time to listen and help them regain important parts of their lives. She shared that she is married to a wonderful man, and they have 4 children: 2 sons and 2 daughters. When she’s not hard at work helping patients, Debra likes to spend time with her family and explore the outdoors.
Please welcome Debra Hampton to our wonderful team!
Renewed Vitality is the Berks County area’s premier facility for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and other treatments. We serve both men and women, offering trusted, effective care that relieves hormone imbalance symptoms and restores quality of life for patients at all stages of life. To learn more, feel free to contact Renewed Vitality today!
The month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second most common cancer in American women after skin cancer, and one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Thanks to treatment advances and an increase in earlier detections through screening, the breast cancer death rate dropped by 1% per year from 2013 to 2018. With fundraising and research taking place every year, especially during October, this disease becomes less deadly all the time, and hopefully one day soon a cure will be in sight. Since it’s the month to go pink and show your support, here are a few events near Berks County, PA.
Endure for a Cure
Crossfit 717 in Lemoyne, PA, is hosting their 10th annual Endure for a Cure fitness challenge on November 6th, starting at 8:30 a.m. All proceeds go to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition. There will be a basket raffle, t-shirt sale, and light refreshments, and the competitions will include a one-mile run, clean ladder challenge, and a “Grace” challenge.
Mat Pilates Class
Club Pilates and Wyndridge Farm Beer Garden will be hosting a Pilates Mat Class Fundraiser at Wyndridge Farm Beer Garden in Lancaster, on October 15th at 5:30 pm. Spots are reserved via donation, and all proceeds will go to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition. The class will be 50 minutes long and participants must bring their own mat. You must be older than 13 to participate in the class, but children of all ages are welcome to attend and enjoy food and drink after the class as well. Donate $25 or more and get a free drink voucher!
Knock Out Breast Cancer
Come to Club La Maison Fitness and Health Complex in Wayne, PA for Knock Out Breast Cancer, a morning of free fitness classes to benefit Living Beyond Breast Cancer. Donations are optional but encouraged. Classes begin at 8 a.m. on October 30th and will run until 10:20 a.m., including BodyCombat, BodyPump, Sprint Cycling, and Core. Bagels and coffee will be provided after classes have concluded.
Zombie Fun Run
Presented by Field of Screams, the 2021 Zombie Fun Run 5K will be held on November 13th at Field of Screams in Mountville, PA. Get chased by terrifying zombies through this unique 5K course that includes mud, obstacles and more. Choose to run during the day, or for the true thrill-seekers, after dark. There will be kid-friendly runs throughout the day and goodies provided at the finish line. Event proceeds benefit the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition.
If you’re not feeling up to being chased by zombies or heading to the gym to raise money and awareness, here are some simple and easy things you can do for Breast Cancer Awareness month that will make just as much of a difference.
Get Checked
One of the best ways you can raise breast cancer awareness is to get yourself screened! Women are recommended to begin getting mammograms at age 40, and continue getting them yearly until about age 55. While mammograms are a full scan of the breast, regular breast exams should be performed for all adult women at least every few years by your doctor, and it’s recommended to also do a self exam on a monthly basis, so that you can become familiar with your breasts and easily notice any changes. If you’re of the age to have your mammogram or clinical exam done and have been putting it off, this is the month to do it. Early detection is key! Those who don’t need exams or mammograms can help by offering to drive their loved ones to the appointment.
Offer Your Support
If you have a family member, friend, or loved one who is a current breast cancer patient or breast cancer survivor, taking the time to be there for them and let them know how much you love them is one of the most important things you can do this month (or any time of year). You don’t need to show up with pink pom-poms in hand and a “fight cancer” t-shirt on to be making a difference, just spend some time with them and help in whatever way you can. Offering to drive them to a doctor’s appointment or treatment session, or cooking or buying them a meal can be a huge help for someone who is dealing with such a difficult time. Above all, if you can brighten their day and put a smile on their face, then you’ve helped them!
