What a Women's Health Consultation Actually Covers
Ninety minutes sounds excessive until you see what actually needs asking.
Dr. Aarti Gadhavi, BHMS
Classical Homoeopath, Magarpatta, Pune
Medically reviewed by Dr. Aarti Gadhavi, BHMS, on 29 July 2026
A first consultation runs ninety minutes and covers considerably more than the complaint you came with. It builds a timeline of the cycle across your life, everything that moves with it, every treatment already tried and what happened, the full medical and family history, and how you are in yourself. The length exists because a constitutional prescription depends on the whole picture, and because most women have never been given the time to give it.
The most common reaction to being told the first consultation takes ninety minutes is polite scepticism. The second most common, afterwards, is that it was the first time anybody had asked.
This blog sets out what actually happens, so you can arrive prepared rather than wondering.
The first part: what brought you
It starts with your own account, uninterrupted, for longer than you are probably used to. That is deliberate.
The order in which somebody describes their own complaints, what they lead with and what they mention as an afterthought, carries information that a questionnaire removes.
Only after that come the specific questions, and they are detailed. When it started.
What has changed since. What makes it better and worse.
What you have already tried and exactly what happened each time, including things that made it worse, which people often leave out because they feel it reflects badly on them.
The second part: the timeline
This is the part that surprises people, and it is the part that most often produces the useful insight.
- When periods started, and what they were like in the first years.
- How the cycle has behaved across your life, including the stretches when it changed and what was happening then.
- Pregnancies, deliveries and losses, and how you were afterwards, which is frequently where a pattern begins.
- Contraception used, for how long, and what happened on stopping.
- Every treatment tried, hormonal or otherwise, and the response.
- Surgery and significant illness, with rough dates.
- The family pattern, because several relevant conditions cluster in families.
Very often the timeline itself answers a question that no single test had, because the change dates to something specific that nobody had connected to it.
The third part: everything else
These questions cause the most puzzlement and they are the ones a constitutional prescription depends on most.
Sleep, and what disturbs it. Appetite, cravings, thirst, and what happens when meals are delayed.
Whether you are generally hot or chilly. Digestion and bowels.
Energy across the day. Mood, and how it moves through the cycle.
How you respond under pressure, and what you are like when unwell.
None of this is small talk. In classical homoeopathy the remedy is selected for the whole person, and these are the details that separate two people with the same diagnosis.
Whatever you decide to do afterwards, the aim is that you leave with a clearer picture than you arrived with.
Mention any of these early, because they change the direction of the appointment.
- Any bleeding after menopause has been established.
- Bleeding between periods or after intercourse.
- A lump in the breast, or any change in the skin or nipple.
- Severe pain that is new or different from your usual.
- Any possibility of pregnancy.
- Unintended weight loss, or persistent bloating over weeks.
- Thoughts of self harm, or feeling unable to cope.
- Anything you have been told needs following up and has not been.
What will not happen
Being clear about this matters as much as describing what does happen.
- Nobody will ask you to stop prescribed medication. Not thyroid treatment, not anything else. Any change to a prescription belongs to whoever prescribed it.
- You will not be told to skip a gynaecological referral. Where a structural cause needs excluding, you will be told so plainly.
- You will not be given a remedy name over the phone before a case has been taken, because that would be a guess.
- You will not be promised a cure, or a timeline, or a guaranteed outcome.
- You will not be examined without explanation and consent, and you can decline any part of an examination at any point.
- You will not be judged for what you have already tried, including things that did not work.
What happens afterwards
A review is arranged, because a first prescription is a considered hypothesis rather than a conclusion. What is assessed at review is not only the original complaint but how you have been overall, which is why keeping a brief note between appointments is genuinely useful.
Where tests are needed, they are arranged or you are asked to obtain them, and treatment is not built on assumptions that a blood test could settle. Where the picture points somewhere structural, a referral is made rather than delayed.
And if a fair trial produces nothing, you will be told that plainly. Extending treatment that is not working is not in your interest, and a practitioner unwilling to say so is not one worth staying with.
The first visit page covers the practicalities in more detail, and the women's health page sets out the conditions this area covers.
Common questions
Why does the first consultation take ninety minutes?
Because a constitutional prescription depends on the whole picture rather than the complaint alone. The consultation builds a timeline of the cycle across your life, everything that moves with it, every treatment already tried and its result, and how you are in yourself. Most women have never been given the time to give that.
Why am I asked about sleep and appetite when my problem is my cycle?
Because in classical homoeopathy the remedy is selected for the whole person, and those details are what separate two people with the same diagnosis. Sleep, thirst, temperature preference, digestion, energy and mood are treated as real clinical information rather than as small talk.
What should I bring to the consultation?
Every report you have including old and abnormal ones, a list of all medicines and supplements with doses, rough dates for your history, your cycle tracking app if you use one, and a written list of your own questions. That last one matters because those are the questions most often forgotten in the room.
Will I be asked to stop my current treatment?
No. Nobody at this clinic will ask you to stop prescribed medication, including thyroid treatment, and any change to a prescription belongs to whoever prescribed it. You will also not be told to skip a gynaecological referral where a structural cause needs excluding.
What happens if the treatment does not work?
You will be told plainly. A first prescription is a considered hypothesis rather than a conclusion, which is why a review is arranged. Extending treatment that is not working is not in your interest, and a practitioner unwilling to say so is not one worth staying with.
Written for the clinic of Dr. Aarti Gadhavi, BHMS, a classical homoeopath practising in Magarpatta, Hadapsar, Pune. It carries no remedy names, no cure claims and no invented statistics, because none of those belong on a doctor's website. If something here does not match what your own doctor has told you, your own doctor knows your case and this page does not.
