Skip to content
Sign in

Saying the difficult thing, in a short appointment

The practical part: how to get the thing you came about into the room.

Lesson 3 of 4

10 min Text

What this lesson says

  • Write your questions in priority order, not the order they occurred to you
  • Say the most important thing first — appointments end before the last question
  • Handing over a written list is neither rude nor unusual
  • Take period dates, a list of everything you take, and old reports
  • Ask cost questions before agreeing to tests, not afterwards

This is general education. It is not advice about your own situation, and it does not replace seeing a clinician.

Written lesson.
  1. 1. The hardest part of a gynaecology appointment is rarely the medicine. It is saying the thing you came to say, in a short appointment, to somebody you have just met.
  2. 2. Clinicians work from what has been raised so far. If the embarrassing question comes last, it often does not come at all. So: decide beforehand on the two or three things that matter most, and open with them. "There are three things, and the main one is —" changes how the time is used more than anything else you can do.
  3. 3. Write them down in priority order and hand the list over. "I get flustered and forget things, so I have written them down" is a sentence that slows a consultation down, and it is neither rude nor unusual.
  4. 4. Take with you: the dates of your last three or four periods, photographs or a list of everything you take regularly including over-the-counter and traditional medicines, and any old reports and scans even if they were normal. A previous normal result is information. A repeated test because nobody could find the old one is a wasted fee.
  5. 5. On money, ask before rather than after: the consultation fee, whether tests are extra and what they cost, and whether the follow-up to discuss results is charged again. If a package is offered, ask for the whole price in writing. Saying that cost is a constraint is a clinically relevant fact — a clinician who knows you can afford one test rather than four will choose the one that matters.
  6. 6. And practical things people forget: a sanitary pad in case you bleed after an examination, and money for tests that may be ordered on the day.

All lessons in this course

  1. 1 What usually happens, and what usually does not 10 min
  2. 2 Consent, examinations, and what you can ask for 12 min
  3. 3 Saying the difficult thing, in a short appointment 10 min Reading now
  4. 4 Afterwards: what you understood, and what you did not 9 min

No lesson is locked. Ticks appear once you have an account, so that what you have read is yours and not this device's.