| In the field of medicine, the patient-physician relationship is affected by complex societal attitudes and assumptions about women. Female patients, especially those with reproductive disorders, tend to be taken less seriously than their male counterparts, and their somatic complaints are more likely to be labeled by physicians as psychosomatic. One such diagnosis is hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Despite limited evidence that psychological factors cause HG, the presumption of a mostly psychogenic etiology has dominated medical literature for decades and may, therefore, contribute to a less than optimal patient-physician relationship as determined by patient satisfaction, an outcome measure of health care quality.;Particular aspects or women's lived experiences with HG that helped to shape their perceptions of the patient-doctor relationship were analyzed as a first step to giving voice to this patient population. This study investigated patients' own beliefs and their perceptions of their doctors' beliefs about the causal explanation of HG, the seriousness of the illness, and the impact of the illness upon patients' daily lives. Also examined were the extent to which patients' beliefs were congruent with their perceptions of their doctors' beliefs, and patients' ratings of the humanistic characteristics of physicians that they deemed important.;The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and was based on a retrospective, ex post racto research design. Ninety-six respondents who had experienced at least one inpatient hospitalization from January 1993 through April 1997 responded to interview questions that focused on their HG illness experience, including both inpatient and outpatient medical care.;Correlational analyses showed that Physician Humanism was the only independent variable round to be significantly associated with the dependent variable, Patient Satisfaction. However, the qualitative data suggested support for each or the research hypotheses such that respondents reported greater satisfaction when they perceived their doctors believed in a mostly biomedical etiology, believed the illness to be serious enough to warrant medical monitoring and intervention, understood the extent to which HG impacted a patient's life, shared patients' beliefs about each of these variables, and exhibited humanistic characteristics. Additional relevant data were presented, implications for practice and policy were addressed, and further research was suggested on women's health care, HG, and patient satisfaction. |
