Guidelines for medical students : gynaecological & obstetric history taking and physical examination

Abstract

The Obstetrician-Gynaecologist provides primary and preventive care for women's health care needs, with an emphasis on reproductive lifecycle needs. Female reproductive health is an important component of medical education. Regardless of the speciality that the medical students will ultimately choose to pursue, as medical practitioners they need to have a basic knowledge and skills pertinent to the care of the female patient. They need to not only need to know how to perform the clinical assessment, but how to do this in a sensitive, competent, and ethical manner. The principles of history taking and physical examination in obstetric and gynaecological patients are similar to those in other branches of medicine, but there are aspects that are specific to the speciality. In general, history taking and physical examination should be carried out in a logical sequence. The medical student should understand the purpose of each posed question and each observational aspect of the examination. While there is marked overlap between the clinical assessment of the obstetric and the gynaecological patient, it will be appreciated that the emphasis differs in the two clinical situations.