The GET-REAL GUIDE to Your Health Checkups

Erum Ilyas, M.D., a dermatologist in King of Prussia, PA, spends more time taking care of her three children’s teeth in a year than she has her own health… ever. “I schedule my appointments only when I hear a scary story or witness something in my own practice.”

She isn’t alone. In a 2018 survey of 1,000 women ages 30 to 60 by public-relations firm GCI Health, nearly 1 in 3 confessed they didn’t get screened regularly for medical conditions, citing a lack of time. And 89 percent of moms surveyed put their kid’s health needs first.

Before you dismiss reprioritizing, consider this: Checkups and screenings aren’t as frequent as they once were. “Most of the stuff you need is not on a yearly interval,” says Lydia Pace, M.D., associate physician in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an assistant