At 75, your screening priorities shift. Some tests you’ve been getting for decades are still important, others should happen less often, and a few routine screenings are no longer recommended. The goal at this age is balancing early detection with the reality that some tests carry risks (false positives, unnecessary procedures, anxiety) that can outweigh their benefits. Here’s a clear breakdown of what’s worth doing.
The Annual Wellness Visit
If you’re on Medicare, you’re entitled to an Annual Wellness Visit at no out-of-pocket cost. This isn’t a head-to-toe physical in the traditional sense. It’s a structured check-in where your provider reviews medications, updates your health risk assessment, checks your blood pressure, and screens for cognitive changes. Detecting cognitive impairment is a required element of this visit. Your doctor may use a brief memory screening tool, ask you questions about daily functioning, or gather observations from a family member or caregiver about changes in memory, judgment, or decision-making.
This visit is also where your provider should assess your fall risk. Falls are one of the most serious health threats for adults over 65, and the risk climbs with age. If you’ve fallen in the past year or have trouble with balance and mobility, your doctor should recommend an exercise program designed to improve strength and stability. This is a formal clinical recommendation, not just general advice.
Blood Pressure and Cholesterol
Blood pressure checks remain essential at every visit. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in older adults, and high blood pressure often has no symptoms. A reading consistently above 130/80 warrants attention, though your doctor will factor in your overall health when setting a target.
Cholesterol panels (a simple blood draw measuring LDL, HDL, and triglycerides) are still relevant at 75, particularly if you have heart disease risk factors or are taking a statin. For context, an LDL below 100 mg/dL is considered optimal, HDL above 60 mg/dL is protective, and triglycerides above 150 mg/dL raise concern. If your levels have been stable and well-managed for years, your doctor may not need to check annually, but periodic monitoring still makes sense.
Diabetes Screening
If you haven’t been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, the American Diabetes Association recommends continuing to screen at least every three years. The test is straightforward: a fasting blood glucose or an A1C test (which reflects your average blood sugar over the past two to three months). If you’ve gained weight, developed new risk factors, or had borderline results before, your doctor may want to test more frequently.
Cancer Screenings That Change at 75
Colorectal Cancer
Routine colorectal cancer screening is recommended for all adults through age 75. Between 76 and 85, screening becomes a shared decision between you and your doctor. The key factors are your overall health, life expectancy, whether you’ve been screened regularly in the past, and your personal preference. If you’ve had consistent negative results on colonoscopies over the years, the benefit of continuing drops significantly. If you’ve never been screened, there may still be value in doing so.
Breast Cancer
Mammography guidelines for women 75 and older are genuinely unsettled. The USPSTF does not make a recommendation for or against screening mammography after age 74, citing insufficient evidence. The American Cancer Society recommends continuing biennial (every two years) screening as long as you’re in good health and expected to live at least 10 more years. Some other medical organizations recommend against routine mammography at this age, while others support it. The American Geriatrics Society advises basing the decision on your individual health profile. In practice, this means the conversation with your doctor matters more than a blanket rule.
Prostate Cancer
For men, PSA-based prostate cancer screening is not recommended at 75. The USPSTF recommends against PSA screening for men 70 and older, concluding with moderate certainty that the potential benefits do not outweigh the expected harms. Prostate cancers detected through screening in this age group are often slow-growing and unlikely to cause problems during a person’s lifetime, while the follow-up biopsies and treatments can cause significant side effects. If you have specific concerns or symptoms (difficulty urinating, blood in urine), that’s a different conversation, one about diagnosis rather than screening.
Lung Cancer
Low-dose CT screening for lung cancer is recommended for adults 50 to 80 who have a 20-pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years. If that describes you, this annual scan is still on the table at 75. If you quit decades ago or never smoked heavily, it doesn’t apply.
Bone Density
Women should have had a baseline bone density scan (DEXA) by age 65, and repeat testing depends on earlier results. Research shows that rescanning every 4 to 8 years is reasonable for most women, but the interval should be shorter if your initial results showed low bone density. A woman with a T-score in the mildly low range (between -1.5 and -2.0) may progress to osteoporosis in about 5 years, while someone with normal baseline density might not reach that threshold for nearly 17 years. At 75, if you haven’t had a scan in several years, or if you’ve had a fracture, lost height, or developed a stooped posture, it’s time for one.
For men, bone density screening isn’t universally recommended, but your doctor may order it if you have risk factors like long-term steroid use, low body weight, or a history of fractures.
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
This one-time ultrasound screening applies to men aged 65 to 75 who have ever smoked (defined as 100 or more cigarettes in a lifetime). If you fit that profile and never had the screening, ask about it now. The test is painless, takes minutes, and detects a dangerous bulge in the main blood vessel running through your abdomen that can rupture without warning. For men in this age range who have never smoked, the screening is offered selectively based on other risk factors like family history. There is no routine recommendation for women.
Vision and Hearing
Your eyes and ears deserve regular attention at 75, even if formal screening guidelines are limited. Glaucoma, macular degeneration, and cataracts all become more common with age, and vision loss develops gradually enough that you may not notice it yourself. A comprehensive eye exam every one to two years is a practical standard. Hearing loss affects roughly one in three adults between 65 and 74 and nearly half of those over 75, and untreated hearing loss is linked to cognitive decline, social isolation, and fall risk. If you haven’t had a hearing evaluation recently, it’s worth requesting one.
Vaccinations
Staying current on vaccines is one of the simplest protective steps you can take at 75. The CDC’s current schedule for your age group includes:
- Flu shot: One dose annually. Adults 65 and older are specifically recommended to get a high-dose or adjuvanted version, which produces a stronger immune response than the standard shot.
- COVID-19: Two or more doses of the current season’s updated vaccine for adults 65 and older.
- Pneumococcal vaccine: If you haven’t already received a pneumonia vaccine series, you need one. The specific type depends on what you’ve had before, so bring your vaccination records.
- Shingles vaccine: Two doses of the recombinant vaccine, given two to six months apart. If you had the older, single-dose shingles vaccine years ago, you should still get the newer two-dose version.
- RSV vaccine: Recommended for adults 75 and older, and selectively for adults 60 to 74 based on risk factors. This is a newer addition to the schedule.
What Drives These Decisions
The common thread across all these guidelines at 75 is individualization. Screening recommendations increasingly depend on your overall health, life expectancy, personal history, and preferences rather than age alone. A healthy, active 75-year-old with no major chronic conditions faces different calculations than someone managing multiple serious illnesses. The most productive thing you can do is bring a list of these screenings to your next appointment and have a direct conversation about which ones make sense for your situation.