How a consultation works

Each step exists for a reason, and nothing in it commits you to a treatment before you have spoken to the doctor.

1. Choose a system of medicine and its doctor: modern medicine, Ayurveda or homeopathy. If you are unsure, book anyway and ask during the call.
2. Pick a date and, where one is offered, a time slot that suits you.
3. Verify your WhatsApp number with a one-time code, so that the booking and its messages reach you and nobody else.
4. Pay the consultation fee by the method shown when you book, within the time the booking page gives you; the slot is held for you while you pay.
5. Speak with the doctor by private video or audio call. The doctor asks about the problem, your general health, past illnesses and every medicine you take.
6. Depending on your case, the doctor may advise blood tests, a scan or an in-person examination before recommending anything else.
7. Talk to the doctor before deciding on medicine. If a medicine is clinically appropriate, the doctor explains what it is for, how to take it and its possible side effects, and you decide whether to go ahead.
8. If a medicine is prescribed and you choose to obtain it through the practice, it is dispatched in discreet, tracked packaging, and a follow-up consultation can be booked to review how you are doing.

Sexual symptoms are often connected to the rest of the body. Erectile difficulty, for instance, shares causes with heart disease and diabetes, and consensus guidance asks doctors to assess cardiovascular risk before treating it^[2]. Questions about blood pressure, sugar, sleep, mood, alcohol and medicines are therefore part of a proper consultation, not a delay. Honest answers are what allow the doctor to advise you safely.

India's Telemedicine Practice Guidelines of 2020 allow a registered practitioner to prescribe after a remote consultation only when reasonably satisfied that the information gathered is adequate, and they restrict which medicines may be prescribed remotely^[1]. So a prescription is never a condition of booking. Sometimes the right outcome of a consultation is reassurance, a lifestyle plan, a test, or a referral for an in-person examination.

• A prescription follows the consultation, never the booking.
• You may decline any treatment the doctor suggests.

The call is between you and the doctor. You can take it from anywhere private, and you do not need to show your face if an audio call is more comfortable. Medicines, if any, are packed without any mention of the condition on the outside.