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Be Your Best Advocate: Tips for Talking to Your Doctor About Treatment Choices

By Jeanine D

Health care is full of choices. We all hope for a magic pill with no side effects to solve our health problems, but that’s not how it usually works. For most health problems, there is more than one treatment, and each treatment has pros and cons.

Some decisions are easy. But sometimes, knowing which path is best for you can be confusing and stressful. The best decisions are the result of honest conversations with your doctor. The tips below will help you get the most out of these conversations.

Come with questions. It’s important to understand your condition and treatment choices. Make a list of questions to ask before you go to the doctor. Some examples:

  • What is my condition called?
  • What are my treatment choices?
  • How will each treatment make me feel?
  • Will the treatment improve my condition? Or is the goal to improve my symptoms?
  • What problems could the treatment cause for me?
  • What are the chances the treatment will work?

Ask the doctor to explain what researchers have learned about how well the treatment works and what problems or harm it could cause.

Share what you know. Tell the doctor what you learned about your treatment choices from friends, family, and the internet. There’s a lot of health information out there – some helpful, some confusing, some plain wrong. Your doctor can help you sort through and make sense of it.

Share your worries, hopes, and goals. The best choice might be clear after you look at the pros and cons of each option. But often, two or more choices may seem possible. To decide, think about what’s most important to you. How will the treatment affect your day-to-day life? Which option supports the values and goals that matter to you most? Share these important factors with your doctor.

Ask for some time. Most of the time, you don’t have to make a quick treatment decision right there in the doctor’s office. Ask the doctor for some time to read about the options and talk to friends and family.

Remember that the choice is yours. Your voice matters most when it comes to your health. Do the research, talk to friends and family, and ask your doctor for their advice. Then, decide what is best for you. You may even decide not to do any of the treatments – that’s always an option.

It can be hard to understand treatment options, and the decision-making process can be emotional. As in life, nothing is perfect in health care. But when you ask questions and have good conversations with your doctor, you can come to a decision that’s right for you.

Go to AHRQ’s Questions Are the Answer website for more tools. You’ll find a list of the top 10 questions to ask, advice about talking to your doctor, and a question-builder app so you have your questions ready to go on your phone.