Usually
the histories of new patients are written by the resident doctors in the
outpatient clinic, and then the patients go for a clinical examination to
senior doctors. But there was a big queue for history taking and no patients
for examination. So I went to write a few histories. There was a 24 year old
patient, who had come for a check up because she had missed her menstruation by
5 days. After asking about the complaint, menstrual, obstetric, medical,
surgical, and personal history, I asked her about her use of any
contraception.
"Yes.
My husband uses condoms" she said.
I
had known that most of the couples coming to our
clinic were not very regular in their use of condoms, when they used condoms at
all. So I asked, "when does your husband use condoms? Does he use a condom
every time?"
"No,
not every time" she said. "He uses only during my menstruation."
"What
does he use at the the other times?" I asked when I had recovered from the
shock I experienced.
"Nothing"
she said.