An anxiety for many doctors and nurses is the fear that they may have to discuss their own personal feelings in the group. It has already been pointed out that at no time is the sexuality of the professional a subject of study. Similarly, the members are not required to look at their own history [...]

Medical consultations, particularly in general practice, are complicated interpersonal transactions. The family planning consultation is fundamentally no different from other consultations. Along with many other problems which are presented to doctors whose content is not to do with illness, a different approach is needed from that which many doctors were taught at medical school. In [...]

Some patients will provide clues about hidden problems from their reaction to suggested physical examinations. Most women attending for contraceptive consultations expect a vaginal examination and doctors feel that it is appropriate to offer it. Some may welcome it (as above), most regard it as a necessary evil, but some positively avoid it. The patient [...]

In time, this woman recognized her own anger and the presence of deep and unresolved conflicts in her marriage, and she began to work on the situation. Her hope that a vasectomy for her husband would somehow make her more sexually responsive had been in vain, and it might have been easier for her to [...]

A recent survey about contraceptive need in underdeveloped countries gives a broader perspective (Westoff and Ochea, 1991). The authors looked at 25 Third World countries: nine in Sub-Saharan Africa, three in North Africa, three in Asia and 10 in Latin America. They used a questionnaire to quantify the demand for limiting family size, or having [...]