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Gynecological care for women with mental retardation
1Children's Crisis Center, Jacksonville, FL, USA.
Gynecologic care of women with mental retardation often is overlooked because of the physical and ethical difficulties involved in providing such care. Nurse practitioners can use their assessment skills to understand these women better and provide safe care for them. Fertility and hygiene problems can be helped with medroxyprogesterone or low-dose contraceptives. Examinations can be accomplished by using a combination of desensitization classes and sedatives. Clinicians using such a protocol have been able to examine mentally retarded residents at Tacachale (a community for developmentally disabled people in Florida) without the use of general anesthesia.
Gynecologic care of women with mental retardation often is overlooked because of the physical and ethical difficulties involved in providing such care. Nurse practitioners can use their assessment skills to understand these women better and provide safe care for them. Fertility and hygiene problems can be helped with medroxyprogesterone or low-dose contraceptives. Examinations can be accomplished by using a combination of desensitization classes and sedatives. Clinicians using such a protocol have been able to examine mentally retarded residents at Tacachale (a community for developmentally disabled people in Florida) without the use of general anesthesia.