National Self-Check Month occurs every February and 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 perform 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 ensure that they’re healthy. Anyone wanting to know how to perform a self-check can get some guidelines from Selfchec.org.

The History of National Self-Check Month

Self-Chec is a non-profit organization that was founded to help people gain access to the information and tools they need to self-check for their own health. This month was first established 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 delve into a detailed discussion on all of the self-checks a person can perform to ensure 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 perform is to take their own temperature. Many diseases and infections present themselves with a fever first, so it can be an indication that you’re getting sick if you have a higher than normal temperature.

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 diagnosed 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 also 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 performing at-home self-checks and getting those checks that can’t be performed at home checked by a doctor. For men, this includes breast, lung, colon, mouth, skin, testicle, and prostate checks.

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