Table 3 Description of the analysis process

1. Tapes, transcripts and field notes from the FGDs were listened to and read repeatedly to get a good grasp of the material.

2. Sections of text in the transcripts, focusing on the research question, were grouped into two main categories; “Sex and gender aspects on patient visit” and “Patient sex in relation to drug treatment”.

3. The sections of text in each main category were summarised and grouped by content into preliminary subcategories.

4. The next step was to find related patterns within each preliminary subcategory. Sections of text were moved between subcategories and new subcategories were formed.

5. The subcategories were grouped into three categories (Table 4).

6. Quotes were selected to illustrate the categories. These quotes were translated to English by the authors. Repetitions and unnecessary words such as humming were removed. To ensure that the sense in the content wasn’t changed in the translation, the quotes were cross translated back to Swedish by a native English speaking person.