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 someone you have just met. This guide is about that part.
Before you go
Write down the dates of your last three or four periods. Photograph the strips of everything you take regularly, including anything bought over the counter and any traditional medicines. Gather old reports and scans even if they were normal and even if they are years old — a previous normal result is information, and a repeated test because nobody could find the old one is a wasted fee.
Then write your questions in priority order. Not the order they occurred to you: the order of how much they matter. Appointments end sooner than expected, and the thing that actually worried you should not be the question you were about to ask.
Saying the difficult thing first
Clinicians work from what has been raised so far. If the embarrassing question comes last, it often does not come at all. "There are three things, and the main one is —" at the start of the consultation changes how the time is used more than anything else you can do.
Handing over a written list is not rude and it is not unusual. "I get flustered and forget things, so I have written them down" is a sentence that slows a consultation down.
What you can ask for
A woman clinician — ask when you book, and ask whether she is working at the time you are being offered. A chaperone, meaning a member of staff present during an intimate examination; professional guidance says one should be offered and you can ask whatever the clinician's sex. A companion of your own in the room. Or the opposite: a few minutes alone, without whoever came with you, which is an ordinary request and the simplest way to control what your family hears.
You can also ask to be spoken to in your own language, and to have the name of a condition or a medicine written down.
What you can decline
An examination requires your agreement. You can ask what it would tell her before deciding, ask for it at a later appointment, and ask her to stop once it has started. Declining does not end the consultation; she will tell you what cannot be assessed without it, and you decide.
Within an examination you can ask for a smaller speculum, more lubricant, to insert it yourself, or to pause. If something in your history makes this frightening, you can say so without explaining it.
Money, before it becomes a surprise
Ask 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 and what happens if only part of it is needed. 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.
A substantial range of services is free or nominally charged at government facilities under the National Health Mission. What is available where you live is a question for that facility.
Afterwards
Before you leave, say the plan back in your own words. It catches misunderstandings while she is still in the room. Afterwards, write down three things: what you understood, what is still unclear, and what you want to ask next time. If you do not know how to take a medicine you were given, ring the clinic or a pharmacist today rather than waiting.
How this guide was written
AskHer's editorial team wrote this from the published guidance listed at the end of the explanations it links to — FOGSI, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the ICMR, the World Health Organization, the RCOG and the NHS among them. It has not been signed off by a clinician registered in India, because no clinician has yet joined AskHer and had her registration checked. That is why no clinical reviewer is named on this page.
Nothing here is a diagnosis, and nothing here is advice about your particular situation. When a clinician does review a guide, her name and the date she reviewed it will appear here in place of this note.
This is general education. It cannot tell what is happening in your own body, and it does not replace seeing a clinician.