National Self-Check Month occurs every February and it encourages everyone to take their health seriously and to take charge of it. Both men and women can benefit from taking the time to learn about some of the self-checks they can do at home to spot the early warning signs of disease.

While a person might only see their primary care physician every 3-12 months, a self-check is something that they can do on a regular basis to make sure that they’re healthy. Anyone wanting to know how they can perform a self-check can get some guidelines from Selfchec.Org.

The History Of National Self-Check Month

Self-Chec is a non-profit that was founded this month to help people gain access to the information and tools that they need to self-check for their own health. This month was first created in 2017 and continues to be observed by anyone who is interested in safeguarding their health.

Checks That People Can Do At Home

Although it’s beyond the scope of this article to get into a detailed discussion on all of the self-checks a person can do to make sure that they’re healthy, we can go over a few basic self-checks below. Okay, let’s take a quick look at these checks before continuing.

Taking Your Own Temperature

One of the most basic checks a person can do is to take their own temperature. Many diseases and infections present themselves with a temperature first, so it can be an indication of you getting sick if you have a higher than normal temp.

Checking Out The Skin

Looking for moles and other unusual skin changes can help a person identify skin cancers at a stage where they can be more easily treated. Every year, almost 60,000 people are identified in the U.S with melanoma, so this is a very important self-check for people to perform.

Doing Breast Checks

Breast Checks are also important. This not only means looking for lumps, but looking for any unusual breast changes including (but not limited to) bruising, dimpling, or discharge.

Observing National Self-Check Month

Observing this month is as easy as doing at-home self-checks and getting those checks that can’t be performed at home checked by a doctor. For men, this includes breasts, lungs, colon, mouth, skin, testicles, and prostate checks.

For women, this includes breasts, skin, ovaries, lungs, colon, cervix, and mouth checks. People can also spread the word about this month using the hashtag #SelfCheckMonth on social media.