PSYCHOSEXUAL PROBLEMS IN THE CONTRACEPTIVE CONSULTATION – FURTHER TREATMENT OR REFERRAL? (PATIENTS)
Patients may want to have time to come to terms with what has been exposed before discussing it further or deciding to do nothing. Sometimes patients wish to keep their sexual problems, or indeed their contraceptive needs, separate from the management of their illnesses and ask to be referred elsewhere. There may be practical problems for a GP when the partner of a patient needs to be seen but is not registered. A woman can be registered for ‘contraception only’ services, but this often is not available where the male partner needs to be seen, and referral may be necessary.
Sensitive, caring doctors, who pick up the clues of distress from their patients, are often tempted to carry too great a burden. Patients bring their problems to doctors but ultimately have to sort them out themselves. They can be helped to examine the difficulties, but doctors cannot do the work for them. The patient may easily develop a dependent parent/child relationship with the doctor and fail to take on the responsibility for change. A tired doctor, burnt out from the demands made by dependent patients, is unable to see clearly the processes occurring between the patient and the doctor. Full attten-tion is needed to identify the interactions which explain how and why the patient presented at that particular time, to recognize the hidden needs behind the spoken complaints, and to use the feelings arising during the consultation to help the patient to understand the nature of the problems.
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Tags: Erectile Dysfunction, Men’s Health