Increasing awareness of patients as an important component of treatment of uterine fibroids
The experience of informing patients with benign tumors of female genital sphere in St. Petersburg is presented. To clarify the psychological problems of women arising for the identified diagnosis of uterine leiomyoma in St. Petersburg a comprehensive study including a survey of 635 patients and 165 gynecologists of women’s clinics was conducted. The study showed a significant amount of problems of psychological discomfort in women with benign diseases: only every third woman indicated that treatment had no effect on her psychological state. Most often women are concerned about necessity for surgical treatment (48,9%) are introduced a sense of uncertainty about their «women’s health» (25%), about 30% of patients feel anxiety about the uncertainty of the prognosis in connection with the failure information. Among the ways of overcoming the psychological discomfort women chose more effective engagement with health professionals, namely a detailed explanation about diagnosis and treatment (68,9%). Most patients of women’s clinics lack information of physician and other medical personnel on issues of their own treatment. The majority of gynecologists (70,2%) indicated that effective implementation with patients suffering from benign tumors makes it difficult to inadequate health care literacy of patients. The author developed a method of individual educate women on prevention and treatment of uterine fibroids: causes, methods of detection, surveillance, operative and conservative methods of treatment and methods of prevention of this disease. The awareness raising should be considered as one of the main ways of increasing the accessibility of medical care.