PSYCHOSEXUAL PROBLEMS IN THE CONTRACEPTIVE CONSULTATION – CHOICE OF VENUE AND DOCTOR (ANXIETIES)
Patients in the older group may have anxieties about whether they should be still sexually active and hide their requests for advice about contraception behind other complaints such as vaginal soreness or period problems in the same way as those just beginning their sexual life. They may need to try out a different doctor from their usual one in the hope that these clues may picked up. The familiarity which is such an asset in general practice may be an obstacle if doctors assume that they know why the patient has attended. A new doctor/patient interaction can allow attention to be paid to covert presentations, and the doctor is less likely to slip into a social interaction, rather than a medical one, as may occur with a well-known patient. Missing thyroid disease or anaemia in a patient seen regularly is a well-known occurrence; less well recognized is the inattention to the unspoken needs of the patient. The woman who attends regularly for her oral contraceptive checks may be unable to bypass the doctor’s routine enquiries to broach the difficulties she is having; the doctor assumes all is well and fails to notice the hesistations or unease. Only by attending another doctor, who does not know why she has come, can she change the focus of the consultation.
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Tagged as: Erectile Dysfunction, Men’s Health
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