How to Talk To Your Doctor

It can be daunting communicating with your doctor—especially if the medical problem you’re facing is persistent, complex, or difficult to diagnose. However, it's extremely important, since you are who ultimately provides the information required for your doctor to find a solution, so you need to be able to help your physician help you.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. It’s fine to write a list prioritizing your concerns if you have a general checkup. When you're sick, it would probably be more useful to give the time frame for your illness- start at the beginning and describe how it has progressed. Don’t limit your doctor by dwelling on your last internist’s diagnosis or how your illness seems to fit whatever your online research turned up. An open-ended narrative is a better way for the doctor to reflect on all the clues.

2. Whether it has to do with your sex life, your mental state, or anything else that may be socially stigmatized, you shouldn’t be embarrassed to tell your doctor about it. It is within the confidential, intimate relationship that needs to exist between physician and patient. You could be holding back critical information. If something is frightening you about the state of their health, tell your doctor. Voicing your worst fears about an illness may be particularly helpful in getting a physician to take your concerns seriously and can push him/her to consider all possibilities.

3. A physician is under a lot of pressure from insurance companies and policy people to stick to standard practice guidelines and use rigid diagnostic formulas. The problem with that is, the same sets of symptoms can be caused by different disorders. Help your doctor by asking tough questions—the kind that senior physicians ask medical students all the time. Question your doctor after the initial possibility about what else could be causing your symptoms. Ask if it’s possible you could have more than one problem and if any of your symptoms are outside the diagnosis presented. Maybe if you present a question she/he hadn’t asked her/himself, it may be discovered the diagnosis is something entirely different.

Tips & Warnings

• There’s no reason to walk out of your doctor’s office confused. Be sure you’re correctly processing the information you’re given- whether it’s a diagnosis, treatment, or a test result, by putting it into your own words. Nothing should be so complex it can't be clearly explained in layman terms. If you don't understand, say so, and your doctor should clarify it.

[yourmamasaidwha]

on 12/18/2008 i do like to have a list ready for the doc, this way i'm outta there a bit quicker with children in tote...it doesn't speed up the lab, but it gets the process up to that point done a lot quicker...which helps...thanks for the great tips!

[sneedc]

on 12/10/2008 I'd feel like I really got my money's and time's worth by challenging my dr's expertise; this is great advice

[abbeyroad920]

on 10/24/2008 very good advice

[amylaine]

on 10/17/2008 Great article, thanks for sharing.

[taskeinc]

on 10/17/2008 The Book, "Natural Cures and What They Don't Want You to Know About" is a great book that talks about "step 3" .. talks about how shady the Medical/Insurance industry is .. good article.