Questions to ask your doctor
Asking questions helps you get the right care. It's OK to write them down, bring them to your appointment, and ask again if something isn't clear.
10 questions you should know36
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) suggests these questions:
- What is the test for?
- When will I get the results?
- How do you spell the name of that drug?
- Are there any side effects?
- Will this medicine interact with medicines that I'm already taking?
- Why do I need this treatment?
- Are there any alternatives?
- What are the possible complications?
- Which hospital is best for my needs?
- How many times have you done this procedure?
A printout or saved PDF is a copy someone else could find.
AHRQ also offers a free Question Builder to help you make your own list before an appointment. Read AHRQ's full guide.
Feeling dismissed? Our guide to women's pain has steps from federal health agencies that may help you be heard, like describing your pain in detail and keeping a record.373 You deserve to be taken seriously.
Questions for specific conditions
Each of our in-depth guides ends with questions you can bring to an appointment about that condition.
Mental health
- ADHD and autism in girls and women: why they're often missed
- Eating disorders in adult women: not just a teen problem
- Finding mental health care: what to do after a self-check
- Hormonal birth control and mood: what the research shows
- Panic attacks: what they are and what to do
- Perimenopause and mental health
- PMDD: when it's more than PMS
- Postpartum anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and perinatal OCD
- Postpartum depression vs. the baby blues
- Social media and teen girls' mental health: what we know
- Trauma and PTSD in women: after assault, abuse, and other trauma
Body & health
- After preeclampsia or gestational diabetes
- Breast cancer screening: what changed and why
- Cervical cancer screening you can do yourself: HPV self-collection
- Emergency contraception: options and timing
- Endometriosis: why diagnosis can take years
- Heart attack symptoms in women
- Heavy periods and iron deficiency: signs, causes, and care
- Infertility: when evaluation is recommended and what it involves
- Maternal health gaps in the U.S.
- Menopause hormone therapy: what changed and what we know
- Osteoporosis and bone health after menopause
- Painful sex and vaginal or vulvar symptoms: when to get care
- PCOS explained: symptoms, diagnosis, and long-term health
- Perimenopause and menopause: symptoms, timeline, and what helps
- Pregnancy loss: physical recovery, emotional health, and when to get care
- Protecting your heart: blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart disease risk
- Recovering after birth and the postpartum checkup
- STI testing: who should be tested and when
- Stroke: signs, emergency response, and risk in women
- Urgent warning signs during pregnancy and after birth
- Uterine fibroids: symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options
- UTIs: symptoms, recurrence, and when to get care
- When period pain isn't "just cramps"
- When women's pain is dismissed
- Why women were left out of medical research
Looking for mental health care?
Read finding mental health care: what to do after a self-check, or see free, confidential support you can reach today.