About your own situation
Start here, because the general answers online cannot account for what is in your chart.
- Is there anything in my history or current medication that makes a particular approach a bad idea for me?
- Are any of my current prescriptions contributing to weight gain, and is there an alternative?
- Should anything be checked first — thyroid function, blood glucose, anything else?
- What is a realistic target for me specifically, and over what timeframe?
If a medication is being considered
These questions get at the things that are easy to leave unsaid in a fifteen-minute appointment.
- What are the most common side effects, and what would make me stop taking this?
- How long would I expect to be on it, and what is the plan for stopping?
- Is this the FDA-approved product, or a compounded version? What is the difference here?
- What happens to my weight if I stop, and what would we do about that?
- How will we monitor this, and how often will we actually speak?
About things you have already bought
Bring the actual bottles. Photographs of the labels work too. Do not rely on remembering the names.
- Do any of these interact with my prescriptions?
- Is there anything here I should stop taking?
- Is any of this doing anything useful, in your view?
If you are not being taken seriously
This happens, and it happens more to some patients than others. If a concern is dismissed without examination, you are entitled to ask that the conversation be documented in your notes, and to ask for a referral.
Requesting that a refusal be recorded in the chart is a reasonable and often effective way to reopen a conversation that has been closed too quickly.