1999 Volume 39 Issue 3 Pages 221-229
There are many important factors to consider in psychosomatic obstetrics and gynecology, such as sexual health, sexual life, female's psychological condition, hormone and the autonomic nervous system, many syndromes and many symptoms, family relationships, quality of life, ethical and social factors, emergency care, terminal stage care, abortion and stillbirth, and care during and after delivery, etc. In our obstetrical and gynecological duties, we routinely assist in deliveries and perform surgery. In Sapporo Medical College, for a 19 year period from 1975 to 1993 Ioaded schedules have necessarily limited the number of outpatients we were able to treat to a mere 2 or 3% of the total number of new patients. However, since we opened Hoyukai Sapporo Clinic, 3 years ago, 10% of our new outpatients have been treated as psychosomatics. In comparison with other psychosomatic gynecological diagnoses in our new clinic, climacteric syndrome the percentage of patients is extremely high. I compared the Japanese society of psychosomatic obstetrics and gynecology with its international counterpart. There are far fewer member in the Japanese society (under 150) than in the international one (over 1,500) . In Japan the members consist almost exclusively of doctors and nurses, but in foreign countries the members come from varied professions, including psychotherapists, case workers and anthropologists. Recently, "mother-baby units" and "key centers of psychosomatic women's health" have been started in European countries. We opened "The Key Center for Psychosomatic Women's Health in Japan" in our clinic 3 years ago. Since then we have talked every month to people in general about various women's diseases and bio-psychosocio-ethical problems, and also discussed various problems of the doctor-patient relationship during these talks. I feel that recently public awareness concerning informed consent and psychosomatic medicine has gradually increased in Japan.
