- What You Need to Know About HIV
- HIV Treatment
- Handling the Side Effects of HIV Meds
- Talking about HIV
- HIV Meds and Heart Health
- HIV Meds and Heartburn
- HIV Meds and Lipids
- Questions to Ask Your Doctor
- Tips to Work With Your Healthcare Team
Questions for Your Healthcare Team
[ Questions for Your "Positive Health" ]
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You are living with HIV and thinking about the long term: your plans, your goals—your long-term fight against HIV. Knowing what questions to ask your doctor can help you better manage your HIV treatment over the long term. Knowing all of your treatment options, important side effects, drug-drug interactions and resistance issues can make a difference in your fight to control the virus.
Here are some questions that may help you make decisions with your doctor about your HIV treatment choices. You may not need answers to all of these—and may already know many of the answers from talking with your doctor or case manager. HIV can be overwhelming. These questions can help you create your personally defined positive health.
- When should I begin antiviral treatment (if you haven’t started combination therapy)?
- What are the goals of my treatment?
- What do my viral load tests and CD4 cell counts tell me about my health?
- What should I think about before starting any new HIV med?
- What side effects should I expect? How can I manage them? When should I call you about side effects? Do certain side effects affect men and women differently?
- What are the possible signs of allergic reactions and what should I do if I think I am having one?
- What should I do if I am having a hard time taking the meds I am currently on?
- When should I think about switching my HIV meds?
- What do my resistance test(s) show me about my treatment options?
- How are my meds dosed? Are there food restrictions? Refrigeration needs? Drug interactions?
- What do I need to know about medications I am taking for HIV or AIDS-related opportunistic infections or illnesses?
- Can you help me design the best med schedule for my lifestyle? Are there tips to help me remember to take my meds and/or handle side effects?
- Do I have personal risk for, or family history of, other health problems (high cholesterol, for example) that we need to think about when choosing an HIV med?
- What prescription medications should not be taken with my HIV meds?
- What over-the-counter medicines should not be taken with my HIV meds (for example, antacids for heartburn or acid reflux disease)?
- What nutritional supplements should not be taken with my HIV meds?
- [For Women] Can I take birth control pills with my HIV meds? What should I know about HIV treatment during pregnancy?
- If needed, what resources are available to help me pay for my HIV meds and other prescription medicines? Get the nutritional foods I need? Arrange transportation to and from doctors’ appointments? Get childcare when needed?
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Questions For Your “Positive Health”
“Positive Health” is about more than HIV—it is about wellness. A wellness model of health looks at physical health as one part of your overall well-being that also includes your mental, spiritual and emotional health. Achieving positive health and wellness includes good nutrition, social connections, mental health support, healthy sexuality, self-esteem, active spirituality (however you define it) and other ways of strengthening you in your life’s journey. Most of all, actively taking part in your own healthcare can make a difference in your positive health.
As part of your overall healthcare, talk with your healthcare team about:
- Other ways of nurturing your health besides medications (exercise, support groups, diet, etc.)
- Any family history of illness (for example, heart disease or stroke)
- Ongoing “life issues” like stress, financial worries, depression and/or anxiety, alcohol and/or drug use or other addiction, domestic violence—any problem that is getting in the way of your ability to manage your HIV treatment and treatment for other conditions
- Other sexually transmitted diseases and, if you are sexually active, safer sex education and help with telling a sexual partner that you are HIV+
- If you are African American or Afro-Carribean, Latino/Hispanic, Native American or Asian/Pacific Islander, ask your care providers if you are at higher risk for certain illnesses and conditions
- For men, ask questions about conditions and illnesses that affect men more often or differently (prostate disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, etc.)
- For women, ask questions about:
- Any reproductive/sexual health issues (menstrual problems, other sexually transmitted diseases, routine breast exams, early menopause and menopause, etc.)
- Pregnancy planning and prenatal health (if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant)
- Conditions and illnesses that affect women more often or differently (heart disease, thinning bones, depression, other autoimmune diseases, diabetes, etc.)
Other questions I have:
You can print a copy of these questions to take with you to a doctor’s appointment and help you remember to get the answers you need. Some of these questions may also be answered by a nurse, physician assistant or case manager. If you haven’t already, you may want to start a healthcare journal to record the answers for future reference and to keep track of emergency contacts, insurance information, names of medications, lab results, symptoms and side effects, new questions and other health and wellness-related concerns.
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This information does not include everything you may need to know about HIV and does not take the place of talking with your healthcare provider.
