Your health is a responsibility shared by you and your doctor. It is your doctor's responsibility to help you stay well and to treat you when you are ill. It is your responsibility to keep in touch with your body and to be alert to any changes in your body and its functions that may signal something is wrong. Your doctor can help you do this by performing exams on a routine basis.

An obstetrician-gynecologist (ob-gyn) has special education, training, and skills in women's health. As a specialist in women's health, your ob-gyn can devise a care plan designed for your needs. He or she can teach you how to maintain your health and prevent disease, to detect problems that only a doctor or certain tests can find, and, should you become ill, to provide care for you.

For your health information

• The Importance of a Gynecologic Examination
  The regular gynecologic exam is a key part of your health care. Routine gynecologic exams are important to a woman's total health and well-being...
• Endometriosis
  In endometriosis, tissue that normally lines the uterus (the endometrium) grows somewhere else in the body. It may cause pelvic pain, especially during menstruation. This pain may be mild to severe...
• Vaginal Infections and Vaginitis
  Vaginitis is an inflammation of the vagina characterized by discharge, odor, irritation, and/or itching. Vaginitis is rarely a serious threat to a woman's health. It can be annoying and uncomfortable, though. It usually does not go away without treatment...
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases
  Symptoms of discharge, burning, pain, and irritation, can be caused by infection with viruses and bacteria that are spread through sexual contact. A woman with this type of infection can pass it to her sexual partner...
• Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
  Aside from AIDS, the most common and serious complication of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among women is pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), an infection of the upper genital tract. Untreated, PID causes scarring and can lead to infertility, tubal pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, and other serious consequences...
• Ovarian cysts
  Ovarian cysts are growths that form on the ovaries. Some types of ovarian cysts are normal and usually harmless, often going away without any treatment. Other cysts are abnormal and may cause problems...
• Laparoscopy
  Problems that occur with a woman's reproductive organs sometimes cannot be found by a physical examination alone. Other tests, X-ray, or ultrasound may still leave some uncertainty. In these cases, a type of diagnostic surgery, called laparoscopy, allows the doctor to look inside the abdomen at these organs and to help correct any problems...

Other related topics

• Why a PAP Test Is so Important
  The most effective early cervical cancer detection method available today is the Pap test, or Pap smear. It is a simple procedure that involves swabbing a small sample of cells from a woman's cervix ...
• Urinary Tract Infections
  About one of every five women will have a urinary tract infection during her life, and some women will have more than one. Fortunately most urinary tract infections are not serious. With the antibiotic drugs that are available today, these infections are easy to treat, and symptoms disappear in a short time...

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