Rehab Medical

Health information

Women's health

Most of what women come to a family doctor for is not gynaecology: it is heavy or irregular periods, exhaustion that turns out to be anaemia or thyroid, contraception, the years around menopause, and finding out whether a breast lump matters. Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in Egyptian women, and Egypt's national Women's Health Initiative has screened at a scale few countries manage — so the honest question here is usually not whether to be checked, but where and how often.

When it cannot wait

Signs that mean today

These are not reasons to book an appointment. They are reasons to be seen now, or to call an ambulance on 123.

  • Heavy bleeding soaking through protection every hour, with dizziness or breathlessness — that needs assessing today.
  • Severe one-sided pelvic pain with a missed period, especially with shoulder-tip pain or faintness — ectopic pregnancy must be excluded immediately.
  • Fever with pelvic pain and offensive discharge, or a hot, red, painful breast with fever — both need same-day treatment.
  • In pregnancy: any bleeding, severe headache with visual changes, or reduced fetal movements — go in, do not wait for an appointment.

When to book

Reasons to be seen

  • You find a lump, a change in the shape or skin of a breast, or any discharge from a nipple — at any age, and however small.
  • Your periods are heavy enough to change your day, have become irregular, or have stopped without a pregnancy.
  • There is bleeding after intercourse, between periods, or any bleeding at all after the menopause — that last one is always investigated.
  • You are exhausted, losing hair, gaining or losing weight without trying — thyroid disease and iron deficiency are both common and both easily tested.

What a visit looks like

What a visit for this involves

  • 25–30 minutesClinic visitAt the clinic, unhurried
  • 20 minutesVideo consultationFrom anywhere in Egypt
  • 15 minutesFollow-upAfter a recent visit, same complaint

In the room

What the doctor checks

  1. A proper history first — cycle, contraception, pregnancies, family history of breast or ovarian cancer. Half the diagnosis is in the story.
  2. Examination with a female chaperone if you would like one, always offered and never assumed.
  3. The tests that answer the actual question — a full blood count and ferritin for heavy periods, thyroid function, a pregnancy test where relevant, and an ultrasound or mammogram referral where the examination calls for one.
  4. Where the free national services are, and how to use them — the Women's Health Initiative runs screening and follow-up at thousands of units across Egypt.

Come prepared

What to bring

  • The dates of your last few periods, however approximate, and how many days of heavy flow.
  • Any previous ultrasound, mammogram or hormone result, and the report rather than only the conclusion.
  • Which relatives had breast, ovarian or bowel cancer and at what age — the age matters as much as the diagnosis.

Next step

Tell us what's happening and we'll arrange the right kind of visit.

Message the clinic on WhatsApp. We reply with the times that are free and what the visit costs, before you agree to anything.

Book on WhatsApp

At home

Between visits

  • Know what your own breasts normally feel like, so a change registers. That is more useful than a rigid monthly ritual.
  • Track periods in a note or an app for three months if they are irregular. A pattern is diagnostic; a memory is not.
  • If iron was started, keep taking it for three months after the blood count is normal — that is what refills the stores, and stopping early is why anaemia comes back.

Before you write

Questions patients ask

Written and clinically reviewed by Dr. Rehab Ahmed, MBBCh, Ain Shams University · Diploma in Family Medicine. Last reviewed August 2026.

What this page is based on

This page is general information written by the practice. It is not a diagnosis and does not replace seeing a doctor. In an emergency, call 123.

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