Psychosexual medicine as it is understood in great Britain in the 1990s has come a long way from its roots in family planning, when the patient was usually a woman attending on her own. Help is now offered to men and to couples. Seminar training and research has furthered doctors’ understanding of body-mind doctoring, and [...]

Examples of situations alerting the doctor to a hidden agenda are given by Freeling and Harris (1984). Nonverbal cues may be obtained from the patient’s gestures, posture and dress, reflecting an emotional state she or he does not mention. Or the patient’s opening gambit may be a general question rather than a statement about the [...]

Blair described how giving up the oral contraceptive pill may be a signal of emotional fears and other difficulties such as the relationship with the partner (Blair, 1983). She reported on patients who were requesting termination of pregnancy who had taken the Pill and either given up or taken it irregularly. Some of these patients [...]

The essence of most definitions of the word ‘counselling’ is that the patient is helped to review their own situation and make their own decisions. Such an understanding is central to the idea of sterilization counselling, but there are other imperatives for doctors who are discussing sterilization with their patients. In the first place they [...]

The commonly held belief that Asian women are uncomfortable about touching their genitals is belied by the observation that many of them have completely shaven vulvae. Clearly with this family, knowledge about cultural norms was no help to the doctor who had to feel a careful way towards the individual wishes of each member. Nor [...]

We know that our shared goal must be to learn to live as though our cancer will never come back. Surely if we spend our lives struggling with fear and grief, the cancer has won— whether or not it ever recurs. If this is a challenge you must face in the future, you will find [...]

The prospect of undergoing chemotherapy is frightening. Many women are more worried about chemotherapy than surgery. Start by forgetting all the horror stories you have heard. Remember that each person reacts as an individual to treatment; it is also crucial that you realize your oncologist wants to help minimize any unpleasant side effects you may [...]

? There are both advantages and disadvantages to having simultaneous or immediate reconstruction. ? Advantages include having only one surgery, which also means one general anesthesia, one hospitalization, one recovery period, and not ever having to live without a breast. ? Disadvantages include having to make a complicated decision in the middle of a period [...]

Preadolescent children can be tough! Like their younger siblings, they may have many questions—or they may not. You may want to talk with them more than they want to talk with you. As long as you repeat the message that you will be available to talk when your son or daughter is ready, you will [...]

It is unlikely that you can safely assume that your doctors and other health care providers will be well informed about these other options. Western medical training and experience does not emphasize them, and there have not been controlled studies to evaluate their efficacy. Having said this, we note the trend in medical education to [...]