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Part 2.
Once you know the signs and symptoms of a yeast infection, you can decide on the best way to handle it.
The most obvious symptom of a yeast infection is the discomfort in the affected area. This is certainly one of the revealing and most common symptoms of a yeast infection. The kind of discomfort is often described as an intense burning or itching sensation.
Pain when urinating is caused by the irritated lining of the vaginal area. In severe cases. the infected individual may experience extreme discomfort, such that carrying out normal daily activities such as walking can be affected.
Sexual intercourse too becomes painful for most affected women and indeed, should not be undertaken without a condom or barrier because of the risk of passing on the infection and/or getting re-infected. Oral sex should be off limits for the same reason.
Another way which will help you consider the likelihood of a yeast infect ion is by taking note of the appearance of the affected area. Most individuals afflicted with a yeast infection describe the area looking white and having the appearance of curdled milk. Redness and soreness is evident in the affected area most of the time as well.
A discharge may or may not be present, depending on the case. Note that only about 20% of women afflicted the infection report the presence of a discharge in the vaginal area. The discharge may be clear to whitish or slightly yellowish, and may be anywhere from thin to thick consistency.
Lastly, another sign that may help how to confirm a yeast infection is the distinct odor. The discharge may or may not be accompanied by a starchy odor, the kind that resembles bread or beer when it is being made.
Note that yeast is used in bread making as a leavening agent, and in beer making for fermentation. That is because the infection basically is a fungal infection, commonly caused by Candida albicans, a form of yeast.
Some people recommend that if you are prone to vaginal yeast infections, you should avoid eating a lot of products with yeast in them, and eat more yogurt and items with natural bacteria in them. Whatever your decision about diet, beware of using too many over the counter medications to treat yeast infections.
Stay clean, wear cotton underwear that is loose enough to breathe, not synthetics, and beware of thongs, as they can transfer bacteria from the back to the front of your body more easily than a regular pair of panties.
Be sure to go to your doctor for regular pelvic exams. And if you are sexually active but not in an exclusive relationship, then be sure to get a thorough check up and practice safe sex at all times.
Yeast infections can be uncomfortable and inconvenient, but they are not nearly as bad as a sexually transmitted disease. Both can be prevented if you take the right steps to look after your health.
Part 2.
Remember, most breast lumps are not cancer. Pay attention for lumps that persist more than a month, or that grow or change shape with time. Again, new research says that just because you might be prone to lumps does not mean that you will inevitably get cancer.
You doctor can perform tests to determine if a bump is cancerous or benign; so you should see them with any concerns.
It is important to perform breast self-exams regularly, not just once or twice. This is because a breast exam is looking more for changes rather than problems that are noticed with one exam.
You need to know how your breasts look and feel normally to determine if something has changed or is changing. This means keeping it up regularly to find problem.
If you have breasts with a more lumpy consistency, or if you’re just not good at remembering your breast texture enough to notice changes, you might want to start keeping a journal.
This way, you can make notes or even draw a quick sketch to help yourself remember. If you do notice changes, you can simply take the journal to your doctor to help find the problem. You can also note down your dates on a calendar to remind yourself to do the exam, and check your health diary to make sure you are keeping up.
Because your breasts change somewhat during your cycle, perform exams at the same time every cycle. While some people pick a day every month, this will gradually move to different times in your menstrual cycle. A better time would be to perform is right after the end of your period every month.
While mammograms and annual exams are also essential, the self-exam is your most powerful tool in detecting breast cancer early, and therefore having a better chance of treating it successfully.
Part 2.
[If your mom or grandmother had breast cancer, you’re more likely to get it as well, so your doctor will probably want to give you a more thorough screening. Also, your doctor may want to perform a mammogram earlier if you or they find a suspicious lump they want to investigate.
Lately, there has been a lot of talk about digital mammograms. This is a great technology that can help save lives, but that doesn’t really mean you need to get a digital mammogram instead of a normal one.
These two machines produce the same picture, but a digital mammogram can do it faster because it doesn’t require films to be developed. This new technology allows doctors to take a picture of an abnormality while they’re performing surgery, making their cuts more exact, but it makes little difference when getting a routine scan.
While mammograms are important, they shouldn’t be your only defense against breast cancer. It is also important to perform a monthly breast self-exam to help with early detection of problems, and to have yearly exams by your doctor to detect breast and reproductive issues.
In addition, eating right, watching your weight, and being vigilant about any unexplained changes in your breasts will also go along way toward prevention of breast cancer, or early detection, when the likelihood of fighting the cancer is greatest
Part 1.
We all know that mammograms are an essential part of the early detection of breast cancer, but many of us still don’t get them as often as we should.
It is important for all women, especially over the age of 40, to know what a mammogram is, and when and how often they should have a scan.
A mammogram is simply an x-ray designed specifically to look for abnormalities in the breast. They show lumps and abnormalities that may not be detected by simply looking at or feeling the breast. While they often detect benign lumps as well, they are fairly reliable at detecting cancerous growths.
While most doctors agree that women should get mammograms regularly after a certain age, they tend to disagree on what that age is. You may think the earlier the better, but not only do early mammograms use time and money, they have a high rate of false positives that could lead to unneeded invasive procedures.
This false positive rate is higher the younger the patient. This not only wastes time and resources, but causes an immense amount of stress on the women who undergo these unneeded procedures.
Naturally, you should do breast self-exams every month.
Most doctors recommend you get your first mammogram between the age of 40 and 50, and then continue to get them every one to two years after that.
Almost all doctors recommend getting at least one mammogram before the age of 50. This is not necessarily to detect a problem, but to give the doctor something to compare later scans to. By being able to see changes in the breast, your doctor is better able to detect a problem early.
In particular, if you have a family history, you should get one done earlier, in your 30s.
The age of a first mammogram shouldn’t be the same for everyone though; there are a few factors that make getting them early more important. The first is family history.
Continued in Part 2.
Varicose veins are unsightly, but they can also be a sign of a serious circulatory problem you need to pay attention to. Learn more about varicose veins and what they could be a sign of.
