Being a female leprosy patient in south India

The problems of women patients as revealed by a case study of a woman patient and a questionnaire study of 100 leprosy patients (47 men and 53 women) are presented. These include, besides general ones like ignorance of facts about the disease, specific ones like lack of privacy during clinical examination, indifference towards women's feelings and difficulties in communicating with male workers. A greater sensibility towards the sentiments and problems of women patients, on the part of the health service is required to amend the situation. Recruiting more women workers might help in this regard.