All women aged between 25 and 64 are invited for cervical screening in the UK. Also called a smear test or pap test, it’s a test aiming to prevent cancer rather than a test for whether you have cancer. It checks for a certain virus that can disrupt the cells of the cervix (the opening to your womb from your vagina). If you have the virus, the cells of the cervix can then be checked for any changes that could, with time, lead to cervical cancer. Your local health authority will get your age and address details from your GP records and send you an invitation (usually by post). If you’re under 25, you’ll be invited every 6 months until you are 25, every 3 years if you’re 25 to 49 and every 5 years if you’re aged 50 to 64. After the age of 65 you’ll only be invited if one of your last three tests was abnormal. You then book an appointment with your general practice nurse or sexual health clinic for a test. Cervical cancer is not one of the most common cancers, but it is common in young women, usually affecting those in their early 30s. Once you have cervical cancer, treatment can be difficult and threaten your fertility and your overall health. But it's considered 99.8% preventable, so it's worth keeping up with your cervical screening.

Screening for an abdominal aortic aneurysm is extremely important. Doctors refer to this as AAA (pronounced "triple-A") screening. It looks for any weakness in the aorta, the biggest blood vessel in your body. This runs from your heart to the centre of your chest and your abdomen, delivering oxygenated blood to your tissues and organs. Any weakness (aneurysm) can lead to rupture, which causes a life-threatening bleed into your tummy within seconds. Screening is aimed at detecting disease in those most at risk. Men are at higher risk of developing an AAA, and this increases with age, so men aged 65 and over are invited for a test. You’ll receive your invite automatically by post from the local health authority – they'll use your age and the contact details held in your doctor's records. Owing to the risk profile, this screening is not offered routinely to women, men under 65, or if you’ve already received treatment for an AAA.

The NHS Pharmacy First service is a convenient and accessible healthcare option available in the UK, designed to help patients with minor ailments receive treatment without the need to visit their GP. This service is particularly beneficial for individuals who require quick and efficient care for common conditions, as it allows them to be seen by a pharmacist at their local pharmacy. By providing a straightforward alternative to GP appointments, the Pharmacy First service saves patients time and reduces the strain on GP surgeries and A&E departments. See if you have all the relevant information using our chat.

Patch testing is a technique used to see if you are allergic to a particular substance or set of substances. It's for those with a delayed reaction that takes a couple of days to emerge. Tiny amounts are placed on your skin and you wait to see if you get a reaction. A positive test is where you get redness and bumps in the area exposed to the allergy-causing substance. It takes an expert to interpret the results, as it’s not straightforward. And it helps if you have your own suspicions of what’s making your skin react so tests can be tailored to you. It’s used for those with eczema or contact dermatitis if it’s proving difficult to control with medications, in which case an allergen may be suspected. It’s also useful if you suspect something at work may be causing a rash, as your employer can hopefully offer measures to help. Identifying an allergen can make a huge difference in avoiding it and getting yourself better. Eliminating other potential allergens can also be very important to someone’s quality of life. It's a commitment of your time - several days of clinic trips and no showering during the days of testing. There's a quicker test called the skin prick test, and blood testing, called RAST IgE, but these are for an immediate reaction, so results are ready within half an hour. This is for allergens more likely to cause hives (urticaria) and hay fever-type symptoms than contact dermatitis or eczema rashes, which is a delayed hypersensitivity reaction.

If you find yourself pregnant and do not wish to keep the baby or have it adopted for any reason, you can seek an abortion to bring the pregnancy to an end, otherwise known as a termination of pregnancy. By law in England, Scotland and Wales, this is usually up to 24 weeks, although later in certain exceptional circumstances. The law is more complicated in Northern Ireland. If you find yourself with a positive pregnancy test and are unsure of your decision, you do not need to rush into things. You can turn to your partner, trusted friends or family. You might wish to discuss with someone outside your circle, so your doctor can be a good source of guidance and can refer you for maternity or abortion services. Alternatively, you can refer yourself to abortion services, and they will have counsellors to talk through your options and the turbulent emotions it can bring up. An abortion carries less risk the earlier it is carried out. Earlier discussions also allow for more time to think about the right option for you. If you want to chat to someone you can book an appointment NOW with one of our doctors, or you can chat with the healthwords.ai chat for free today.

An X-ray is a type of scan that uses very small amounts of radiation to create a 2D black and white image of the inside of your body. X-rays send small amounts of radiation energy through the body and detect the amount that has passed through to the other side. Different tissues block or absorb different amounts of the X-rays depending on how dense they are. The more dense the matter, the more radiation it will block and the lighter it will appear. For example, bone shows up as white as it blocks a large amount of the radiation, whereas, air in the lungs allows more to pass through and shows up as much darker.

An ultrasound scan (USS) uses sound waves to create accurate 3D images of small areas of the inside of your body. The sound waves bounce off tissues inside your body and it is how the sound waves bounce back from surfaces that are measured creating the image. The sound waves are extremely high frequency so you will not be able to hear them. Ultrasound scanning is extremely safe, pain-free, and does not use any radiation (unlike X-ray, PET, and CT scan. Ultrasound scanning can be used for looking at many areas of the body, in particular, monitoring a baby’s progression in pregnancy, looking at certain organs or lumps to help with diagnosing, and looking at muscle, joint, and tendon injuries.

While most of us know that there are no benefits to smoking, it can be difficult to stop. Some people think stopping is all about willpower, and they insist on going cold turkey to give up – but experience tells us that they are more likely to return to smoking in future, and only 3 in 100 of smokers who try to quit in this way actually succeed. The good news is that there are several tried and tested methods that will help you quit smoking, but it’s always worth taking the time to understand the hold cigarettes have on us first. Why is it so hard to quit smoking? Smoking tobacco is highly addictive due to the nicotine element that it contains. Nicotine affects the brain in a way that releases endorphins in the brain. These are ‘feel good’ chemicals that make us feel happy and are highly addictive, creating cravings for them once their nicotine trigger has stopped. This temporary high is a hefty price to pay for the cost of smoking to the body. In the UK, almost 100,000 people die from smoking-related diseases every year, and there are over half a million hospital admissions due to smoking annually. Smoking takes a mental hold on us, providing a psychological crutch that’s hard to give up. Daily smoking can become a habit – a ritual around drinking, morning coffee, work breaks and nights out. It can take at least 60 days to break such a habit, which is why relapses occur so often for those trying to quit smoking. To quit for good, smokers must adjust their lifestyle completely, ensuring that it is no longer a part of their routine and daily activities, and is not used to comfort low mood, anxiety, depression or boredom. So, let’s talk through how to quit smoking, including some tried and tested methods to put you in the best position to quit and stay that way.

The prostate specific antigen (PSA blood test relates to a man's risk of prostate cancer but unlike other cancers like breast and bowel, there is no routine screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK. This is because it’s not as straightforward as having a blood test and getting a black-and-white answer: it doesn’t tell you if you have prostate cancer or not. Instead, the NHS offers an informed choice programme where men over the age of 50 can ask their GP for a test (or tests every so often), but after discussion about how difficult the result is to interpret. A PSA result can be normal and you can still have prostate cancer, or it can be abnormal but you don’t have prostate cancer. A positive test, however, does usually mean you need further investigations, and these can be uncomfortable and carry risks. Let’s talk you through what makes a good screening test, and how this can be applied to PSA screening.

PET stands for positron emission tomography, and it is a way of creating 3D images of the inside of your body as well as images to show how well certain parts of the body are working. During the scan a slightly radioactive substance (known as a radiotracer) is injected into your bloodstream that can then be detected as it moves around your body and is taken up by different cells or parts of your body. It shows which cells are more active and which are less. It is usually used in combination with CT or MRI scanning to provide detailed images. Your body then excretes the radiotracer over the course of a couple of hours after the scan so it does not stay in your system. PET scanning is particularly useful for helping diagnose cancer, looking at its spread or response to treatment as well as looking at conditions that affect the brain.

Health systems differ from country to country, and the UK’s National Health Service is no different. Lauded across the globe for its mission to improve lives by free at the point of access healthcare, the NHS can be a complicated system to understand for residents of the UK, never mind people from across the world.

The NHS Health Check is a free check-up for individuals aged between 40 and 74. It is your choice if you decide to take up a health check. The reason for the health check is to assess you for age-related diseases that become more common as you age. These include heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, stroke, and dementia. The health check gives you the opportunity to identify any risks early and better prepare you for the future so that you can make informed, proactive steps to improve your health. If you have no other medical conditions, this health check is recommended to be repeated every 5 years.