Your 50s health check: the exact list to ask for (beyond the mammogram)

You think breast cancer first, because it's everywhere. It affects about 1 in 8 women in their lifetime ^[9]. But what kills the most women in France is cardiovascular disease: nearly 25% of female deaths ^[10].

The mechanism is simple. While your estrogen is present, it keeps your arteries flexible and your cholesterol balanced. When it drops, LDL cholesterol rises, blood pressure can climb, and your heart risk gradually catches up with men's ^[2].

What you can ask for, no fancy test needed:

• Blood pressure, at every visit: quick, free, the first marker.
• A global risk review, combining blood pressure, cholesterol, sugar and smoking ^[1].
• Signs to report: unusual breathlessness, chest pain, sudden fatigue on exertion.

A routine ECG isn't useful without symptoms or risk factors ^[1]. Watching your heart doesn't take a big work-up, just remembering to look.

One prescription, one lab visit, and you get a snapshot of what's circulating in your body. You just need the right boxes ticked on the form.

• Lipid panel: total cholesterol, LDL (the 'bad'), HDL (the protective), triglycerides. After menopause, LDL tends to climb ^[2].
• Fasting glucose, plus HbA1c (your three-month sugar average). Diabetes screening is recommended from age 35, repeated every 3 years ^[3].
• TSH (the hormone that drives your thyroid), if you have warning signs like stubborn fatigue ^[5].

Why bundle them? Because a well-planned blood test means five answers from one needle. These are reimbursed with a prescription. Asking for them isn't overdoing it.

At menopause, the thyroid deserves special attention. In women over 50, an underactive thyroid affects up to 10%, and its signs mimic menopause ^[12]. If it's the cause, treatment is often a simple daily tablet.

After 50, about 1 in 3 women develops osteoporosis ^[11]. The trap: no sign, no pain, until the first fracture, often at the wrist, hip or spine.

Your estrogen puts the brakes on the cells that break down bone to renew it. When it falls, bone weakens fast, especially in the first 5 to 7 years after your periods stop ^[4]. It's a window where everything is decided, behind the scenes.

The test that measures this is the DXA scan (bone densitometry), a quick, painless, low-dose X-ray. In France, it's reimbursed when you have risk factors: menopause before 40, a fracture from a minor knock, long-term corticosteroids, low body weight, family history ^[13].

The move: review your personal risk factors with your doctor. Without a risk factor, focus on prevention: calcium, vitamin D as measured, and weight-bearing activity like walking ^[4].

Here's the most important safety rule on this page. Once you're menopausal, meaning twelve full months with no period, your womb should no longer bleed.

So any bleeding afterwards, even a pink smear, even once, is never a 'return of your period'. In about 1 in 10 cases it signals endometrial cancer, in the lining of the womb ^[6]. The other nine often have a benign cause, but you can't guess which without an exam.

The action isn't negotiable: a prompt medical check. Your doctor will usually arrange a transvaginal ultrasound (a probe that measures the womb lining), and sometimes a biopsy ^[6][14]. Caught early, this cancer is very often highly treatable.

Two free screenings also await you at 50, often forgotten once the mammogram is ticked:

• The FIT stool test, done at home, every 2 years from 50 to 74, fully covered ^[7].
• The HPV test (cervix), every 5 years between 30 and 65, at your gynaecology visit ^[8].