As originally published in the Fontana Herald News on Saturday, March 16, 2024.
Tax forms, check. Car repairs, check. Prep for kids’ school activities, check. Schedule your breast exam or cervical cancer screening exam …wait, what?
If that last item wasn’t on your to-do list for this month, you’re not alone. It’s understandable that regular cancer screenings can fall by the wayside over the course of our busy lives.
It’s so important to get back on track with these routine but lifesaving screening exams, even if you didn’t have in-person visits during the pandemic.
In particular, you should prioritize getting regularly checked for breast and cervical cancer, two of the most common cancers affecting people in the U.S.
Hispanic/Latina women, in particular, are more likely to get these types of cancers diagnosed later, when they are harder to treat. As a group, we’re dying of cancer at higher rates, especially of cervical cancer. This is due to a number of factors that more often keep Hispanic/Latino residents from seeking healthcare, including policies that discourage them from enrolling in public health insurance programs and difficulty finding Spanish-speaking medical providers.
Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties (PPOSBC) actually provides free cancer screenings and other medical services at all of our locations to any person who walks through our doors, regardless of their insurance, immigration status, or ability to pay. Our health centers have Spanish-speaking staff and providers who can provide care in-language. We’ve got a lot to offer Hispanic/Latino patients, which is fantastic for an area like Fontana, which is 70 percent Hispanic/Latino.
Unfortunately, we cannot currently offer these services within Fontana city limits, because the Fontana City Council has chosen to actively block Planned Parenthood from opening a long-awaited health center here that would provide more than 2,000 low-income residents per month with free and low-cost medical care.
Screening exams can find precancerous and cancerous changes early, when treatment will be most effective -- which is why it's also so critical that Latinas in Fontana have access to these cancer screenings.
Last month (February) was National Cancer Prevention Awareness Month, but breast and cervical cancer prevention is something we need to be thinking about year-round — and why it's so important to call on the Fontana City Council to allow Planned Parenthood to build a health center in the city.
How to Get Screened for Breast Cancer
To get screened for breast cancer, first, call your provider and schedule an annual Well-Person Checkup.
During this visit, your provider may ask you if you had any concerns about your breasts. If you are over 25, you may be offered a clinical breast exam every 1-3 years. If you are over 40, your provider will recommend a referral for a mammogram, which is a special kind of x-ray exam of the breasts. If you are under 40 but have a family history of breast cancer, your provider may ask you additional questions to determine if you need any additional referrals or exams.
How to Get Screened for Cervical Cancer
Screening for cervical cancer (also called a “Pap smear” or a “papanicolaou”) is part of a gynecologic exam, which involves placing a speculum in the vagina so the cervix can be seen, and then using a soft brush and plastic swab to gently collect superficial cells from the cervix. The cells are then sent to the lab to be looked at under a microscope. Testing for human papilloma virus (HPV), a very common virus that causes changes to the cells of the cervix, is done at the same time.
Screening for cervical cancer should start when you are 25, though some may elect to start sooner. Screening can be done every three to five years, depending on your test results.
It is important to know that a Pap smear may not be performed every time you have a gynecologic exam, so you’ll need to remember when your last one was performed in order to get timely screening. If you go to an urgent care for an infection, for example, they may or may not perform one, depending on what you are there for.
It can be intimidating to make room in our busy lives to go in for routine preventative cancer screening. Cancer screening exams can feel scary, and it can feel easier to avoid them. Thankfully, screening exams for breast and cervical cancer are available from many healthcare providers, including the caring and compassionate team at Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.
Take steps to protect your health today by scheduling your regular preventative cancer screenings. And if you’d like to take it a step further, and help bring no-cost cancer screenings and other necessary healthcare to Fontana, call on your Fontana City Council members to stop blocking Planned Parenthood, and stop blocking free cancer screenings for low–income Fontanans.
(Dr. Mayra Hernandez Schulte is a family physician with Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.)
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