Chapter A

Start with your reason for seeking care

What brought you here: a symptom, an advert, or a wish to feel different? That is a useful place to start the conversation.

Put the goal into your own words

Write what you hope to change. Describe what is happening and how it affects your day. There is no need to choose a drug before that discussion.

Try a plain opening: I want help understanding this change in my health. What would an assessment involve?

Name the care. Is the offer an assessment, a medicine, a membership or a bundle?
Name the person. Ask who will assess you and where their licence can be checked.
Name the pharmacy. Ask who will prepare and send any prescribed medicine.
Read the reason. Ask why this approach fits the problem you have described.
Read the terms. Ask for the full cost, follow-up plan and way to end the service.

A compounded drug is mixed or prepared for an order; it is not a finished product supplied by a drug maker.

FDA guidance notes that people getting these medicines online may not know who actually prepared them.

An answer such as ask the pharmacy later can leave a gap. Write down the gap and ask who will close it.

Keep a copy of the written answers. Use them when comparing another option, so the questions stay the same.