Not all medical aids will accept a pregnant member. Take a look at the list of medical aids in South Africa. Generally a restricted medical aid – like a medical aid that is reserved for only the employees of a company, professional association or sector of industry – will cover pre-existing pregnancy. These medical aids are not opened to the general public so the medical aid is a little more flexible with issues like pre-existing pregnancy but of course, even they have their restrictions.

Open medical aids on the other hand are less flexible. These schemes are open to the general public so they can be very sticky about pre-existing pregnancy because some people join the medical aid, get cover for the birth/labour process and then leave the medical aid. So these medical aids now don’t allow pre-existing pregnancy. However, even these open medical aids will accept pregnant members under certain conditions like if the member had been on a medical aid within a 90 day prior to applying for membership and so on. Your best bet is to speak to your employer about the company medical aid, consult with an accredited broker or phone around to individual medical aids.

Fortunately you are within your first trimester so if a medical aid is going to accept a pre-existing pregnancy, you will most likely qualify. Don’t wait, try to get cover immediately. Remember that each medical aid has their own policies so we cannot speak for individual schemes and plans.

Read these articles for more information.
1. HIV/AIDS Awareness
2. HIV/AIDS Prevention and Symptoms
3. HIV/AIDS Monitoring and Treatment

Unfortunately we cannot recommend any specific dermatologist who is contracted into medical aids.

We hope that once our classifieds section is up and running then practitioners will choose to advertise their services there for the reader’s convenience. In the meantime, if you can tell us which region in the country you are from then another reader could possibly provide a referral for a dermatologist contracted into medical aids in your area.

Another point to remember is that if you do not get fully reimbursed for a medical service, then you can speak to a tax consultant about filing these bills as a medical expense in your annual tax returns. However this may not always be possible.

If any other reader is going to provide a number for a dermatologist in the area in question, please do not provide the doctor’s name as this may not be appreciated by your doctor. Just a phone number or ask your doctor to put their details on our classifieds section.

THANKS

It may seem like you are getting your period but it is not an actual period. Just a slight bleed at the time around that of your regular period. So yes, you could be pregnant. However this may only happen in some women in the first month or two.

If you have a very regular cycle and now notice that it is late, then you should do a pregnancy test immediately. However there are other causes for missing a period besides pregnancy – read this article on Missed Periods. On the other hand you may not be pregnant and just experiencing a change in your menstrual cycle. Refer to this article on Abnormal Periods.

Usually after 8 to 9 weeks you will not qualify for just the abortion pill and surgical methods will be necessary. You need to first confirm that you are pregnant.