Dominique Roynet
Speeches:
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The satisfaction of treating patients Dominique Roynet, MD, Belgium Because I’m working there with young women, in good health, sexually active, even if it is very emotional, we are on the field of health and not on the one of pathology. If sometimes emotions, ambivalence, psychological difficulties may exist, in most cases, the woman shows her satisfaction, she feels relieved because her problem has been solved. Often I’m not mostly touched by the abortion itself, but more by the circumstances in wich the woman has to live her abortion (problems of couple,violence, loneliness, lack of money, social poverty, extramarital pregnancy, very young woman,..), and always by the guilty feeling and the loneliness wich accompanies so often those women ( in Belgium, catholicism is very present and influential on the mentalities) Because it’s a work that gives me personal valorisations. As a general practitioner, I have to perform several technical acts in other fields of medicine. I must say that no other work generates such a positive(valorisating) image of myself. Nowhere else I do recieve such a lot of small presents, flowers, post cards and thanks than after an abortion. And all those phrases women say to me: “ you have saved my life”, “I’ll never forget you”, “you are so kind”, “I never have been welcomed so warmely”... Because it’s work which contributes to my personale evolution. Listening to women asking for an abortion, it’s impossible not to doubt about our own certitudes, not to question our own prejudices. The motivations advanced by women make me often question myself about ethical issues (“Is it possible to abort just because of the gender of the fetus?”...) The sadness wich always comes with the determination to abort forces me to find the right tone, the right distance. The dignity of some women forces my respect. The indifference or the aggressiveness of others have sometimes induced my own aggressiveness. In front of those women who trust me (but do they really have a choice?), who confine in me their physical, psychic and emotional intimacy, I feel myself humble and modest. Finally, I must say that those women did teach me the biggest part of my present experience. I do thank them warmly. Because it’s work that gives me the opportunity to meet progressive, humanist, feminist colleagues, in a proportion much more important than between surgeons, urologists or other gynecologists and gastroenterologists. The experiences I lived, the tecnics I used, the difficulties of the legal context, the activities of other activists, the enconter with other mentalities, cultures, values..just make me more convinced than ever: “Abortion has to be a fundamental right of women and the access to abortion has to be free and without charge.”
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98% of abortions are carried out in non-hospital situations with very few medical
staff. The antibiotics prescribed are chosen in relation to the age, the sexual
precociousness and the number of partners.
The talk underlined the frequency of asymptomatic carriers , the increase in the
occurrence of Chlamydia 3%. Gonorrhoea tending to disappear.
The criteria for screening are thus defined:
&Mac183; More than 2 partners per year
&Mac183; Request for abortion
&Mac183; Before putting in an I.U.D.
&Mac183; Partner infected with a S.T.D.
&Mac183; The pill before 18
&Mac183; Abdominal pains
&Mac183; Screening for S.T.D.
Treatment : 200mg DOXYCYCLINE for 2 days.
Abortion postponed for a week in the case of Chlamydia