Planned Parenthood stresses importance of regular checkups during gynecologic cancer awareness month

Highlights Growing Need for Access to Affordable, Preventive Reproductive Health Care

St. Paul— In recognition of Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota is encouraging women to visit their health care providers to receive basic, preventive cervical cancer screenings and treatments to help save their lives.

“We see firsthand at our health centers that regular checkups and preventive care are the keys to combating gynecological cancer,” said PPMNS President and CEO Sarah Stoesz. “As the nation moves to reform our health care system, Congress must ensure women’s access to both preventive women’s health care and trusted community health providers, like Planned Parenthood,” Stoesz said.

PPMNS health centers offer preventive reproductive health care, including routine cervical cancer screenings and the HPV vaccine, which protects against the types of HPV that most often cause cervical, vaginal and vulvar cancers. Last year alone, PPMNS provided nearly 12,000 cervical cancer screenings to women across the upper Midwest. For many women, PPMNS is their only source of health care.

Access to preventive care can help women build brighter, healthier futures.  A Planned Parenthood patient in her twenties came to PPMNS for an exam. Her Pap test detected cervical cancer and because of early detection ,she was successfully treated and is cancer free.

Family planning centers, like Planned Parenthood, serve as an entry point for millions of women across the country. The Guttmacher Institute reports that six in 10 clients consider family planning centers their main source of health care. Oftentimes, it is their first interaction with the country’s health care system.
According to the Women's Research and Education Institute, women of childbearing age spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, in part because of reproductive health care needs. A recent survey conducted for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that women are delaying their annual exams as a result of the economic downturn. And a Kaiser Family Foundation report shows roughly 16.7 million women are uninsured, and thus likely to postpone care and delay or forgo important preventive care such as cancer screenings.

Women should get annual Pap tests starting at age 21, or within three years of becoming sexually active, whichever occurs first.

As our region’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care, more than 64,000 clients annually depend on PPMNS for quality, affordable health care.