10 Health Questions To Ask Your Mum

Some mothers and daughters talk about everything; others less so. But Professor Kerryn Phelps says health should be on every woman’s agenda.

- Professor Kerryn Phelps

On Sunday, May 12 we celebrate Mother’s Day. It’s a day to ponder the significance of the relationship with your mum, to be grateful for the positive contribution she made to your life, to forgive past wrongs, to pause to remember your mother if she is no longer alive, or to celebrate the maternal figures in your life.

But this year, why not also use the day as an opportunity to ask your mother some long-overdue questions about her health? Some families just don’t talk about matters they consider “personal”, and in certain cultures it is not considered “the done thing” to discuss illness. If you are adopted, you may have no way of finding out about your genetic medical history. However, if you do have the opportunity to talk to your mother about her health, you can discover information which will help you to manage your own, as well as possibly prevent disease in future.

These days, your doctor will often ask about your family health history. The reason is that as our understanding of the role of genetics in health expands, detailed information about your parents’ health is useful if we’re to do our best to modify risk factors for diseases which have a known genetic link.