title: Self-medication by women attending a genitourinary medicine clinic.
abstract: A questionnaire was completed by 103 symptomatic women attending a busy, walk-in genitourinary medicine clinic in London before seeing a doctor. This questionnaire asked about the patients' own diagnosis of symptoms, previous remedies and their source. The answers were compared to their past history and current diagnosis. Of symptomatic women 56% had used a self-administered remedy prior to attending the clinic. This was significantly associated with a history of a previous episode of genital infection which had produced similar symptoms to the current problem. Forty-three percent of those who used self-medication reported some improvement in symptoms and more than 50% tolerated longer than 10 days of symptoms before attending the clinic.
authors.affiliation: John Hunter Clinic, St Stephens Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Lawrence
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires