SEMINAR TRAINING FOR CONTRACEPTIVE CARE – COMFORT WITH SEXUAL MATTERS
For many doctors, as for their patients, sex is a private, personal and sometimes embarrassing topic. Most people have sexual anxieties or disappointments at some time in their lives, but the majority are able to overcome them or adapt to them with, if they are lucky, the help of a loving partner. However, whether we like it or not, when working in the contraceptive field all doctors and nurses will meet patients who ask for help with their sexual lives either overtly or covertly. The doctor’s personal experience gives him or her a sensitivity to the patient’s feelings, and possible insight into the general difficulties of patients. However, they are of no help in understanding the particular patient in that consultation as each person and each problem is unique. It must be stressed that at no time are doctors in serninar training expected or encouraged to talk about their own sexuality. The group is not there to provide therapy for the doctor, and any personal help that is gained, or change that may take place, is a private matter for that doctor.
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