The New Year is a good time to start monitoring your blood pressure and performing a few other basic health checks.

According to Cancer Research UK, since cervical screening was launched in 1988, it has largely been responsible for a 45 per cent drop in cervical cancer deaths. More than 80 per cent of women now attend screening appointments.

'The most important thing a woman can do is to have regular cervical smears, so that any abnormalities can be picked up long before they cause problems,' says a spokesperson for Cancer Research UK.

The procedure itself is quick, simple and only mildly uncomfortable. A doctor or nurse inserts a speculum into the woman’s vagina to open it up, and sweeps a spatula around the cervix. The sample of cells is then 'smeared' on a slide and sent away to a laboratory for analysis.

Check your breasts

Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK and killed 12,800 women in 2000. Health experts recommend that women perform regular breast examinations, saying it’s important for them to know their breasts and to understand how they change over the menstrual cycle.

Contrary to what you may have heard about checking yourself at the same time each month, government guidance places more emphasis on being 'breast aware' than on performing self-examination at prescribed intervals.

Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, says, 'Being breast aware doesn’t mean following a strict, complicated routine. You simply need to be aware of changes in your breasts and to consult your GP if you find anything unusual or are worried. It is important to remember that early detection greatly increases your chances of surviving breast cancer.

'Get to know what your breasts look and feel like normally. Do this by looking and feeling in any way that makes you feel most comfortable – in the bath, shower, when dressing, standing or lying down.'

Watch your weight

It can also be a good idea to use the New Year to keep tabs on your weight. While many of us may well have made a resolution to start eating healthily again after the Christmas excess, it is worth taking a deep breath and stepping on the scales to see how much weight you’ve actually put on over the previous year.

People who are seriously overweight or obese are at higher risk of developing heart disease or diabetes. You can tell whether you are obese or not from your Body Mass Index (BMI), which you calculate by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared. A BMI of 19-25 is normal, 25-28 is overweight and over 30 indicates obesity.

Gloucester-based GP Dr Dawn Harper says that, from the age of 40, women can expect to put on one pound a year, unless they do something about it, and she warns that the older women get, the harder they find it to shift the extra weight.

'I think what tends to happen is the first half stone creeps up over Christmas and the older you get, the more difficult it is to lose it and so it kind of hangs around a little bit and next year it’s another half stone and before you know it you’re a stone or two above what you were, and then it’s a big deal to get rid of,' she says.

Getting your weight checked at your GP’s surgery is also a good idea, as the scales are consistent and accurate.

Keep an eye on your blood pressure

Finally, as heart disease is one of the biggest killers of women, blood pressure, one of the main risk factors, should also be checked regularly. Recent research from the Krannert Institute of Cardiology in the US found that the risk of sudden death from heart attack among women in their 50s and 60s rose by 21 per cent between 1989 and 1998.

According to the Blood Pressure Association, more than a third of the UK’s adult population has high blood pressure but half of these people are unaware that they have the condition. Your blood pressure is high if your measurement is consistently above 140/90mmHg. The top number shows the pressure in your arteries as your blood is forced through them and the bottom number shows the pressure in your arteries when your heart is at rest.

'If you ask anybody to describe a heart attack victim, they’ll talk to you about a stressed out, heavy drinking, heavy smoking middle-aged man but actually it’s a big deal for women,' Dr Harper says.

'Just keeping a check on some of the risk factors like your blood pressure, your cholesterol and your weight can make a big difference.'

Further information

NHS Cancer Screening Programmes - www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk.

British Heart Foundation - www.bhf.org.uk.

Blood Pressure Association - www.bpassoc.org.uk.

© HMG Worldwide 2002