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What usually happens, and what usually does not

What the room actually looks like, in a government hospital and in a private clinic.

Lesson 1 of 4

10 min Text

What this lesson says

  • A first appointment usually begins with questions, not with an examination
  • Whether an examination is needed depends entirely on why you came
  • In a government hospital the visit starts at a registration counter; in a private clinic at an appointed time
  • You can ask for the door or curtain to be closed and for others to step out

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

Written lesson.
  1. 1. Most of a first gynaecology appointment is a conversation. It usually begins with questions — about your cycle, what brought you, your general health, what you take. An examination, if one is needed at all, comes after that and only with your agreement. A great many first appointments involve no internal examination whatsoever.
  2. 2. What happens depends on why you came. Someone attending about irregular cycles may need blood tests and nothing else. Someone with pain, unusual discharge or bleeding after sex is more likely to need an examination, because the answer is not obtainable any other way.
  3. 3. In a government hospital the visit usually starts at a registration counter and the consultation happens in an outpatient department, sometimes with less privacy than you would like. You can ask for the door or the curtain to be closed, and you can ask for other people to step out. In a private clinic you are generally seen at an appointed time and pay a consultation fee.
  4. 4. Appointments are short. That is the single most important practical fact about them, and the next lesson is about what to do with the time.
  5. 5. One thing worth saying at the start rather than struggling through: if you would find it easier to speak in your own language, say so.

All lessons in this course

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

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