Important Questions For Your Doctor

3 min read

When managing your chronic hives, it is crucial to know what questions you should be discussing with your doctor. This way, you can have a collaborative relationship, and work together to reduce and prevent your discomfort as much as possible. Just as your doctor is the medical expert, you know your own body best and can help them to fill in the blanks.

In asking questions, you are taking an important step to getting answers on your chronic hives journey. Just as importantly, we wanted to find out if our health leaders have questions for their doctors that have gone unanswered.

Questions for your doctor

Reply from Andressa

I believe that there are different questions that we need to ask the doctor because every person deserves the best care. I would ask these questions:

What triggers my hives? (especially when you are in a similar situation like I am. I've never experienced hives before, and at the age of 33 my body just started to develop the hives. What could have triggered it? Is it something that I could prevent? Is it something that is based on a family history of hives?)
What are the different treatment options that I have?
What if my insurance does not cover Xolair injections? (I know that not all insurance companies cover the injections because it is a very expensive injection. When I started it was more than $2000 per month. (for 2 injections)
Can we do different tests? (food allergy, skin allergy, sun allergy, fragrance allergy, soap allergy, etc)
Is there a way to get better? (can you share some stories of other patients?

And yes I do have unanswered questions:
What triggered the outbreak of my chronic hives? And is there any type of treatment that can help me to get better for good? Are there clinical trials where I can participate so I can support research and help find answers?

Reply from Ambre

I remember asking my doctor if they’d ever go away. Or if the itching will ever stop. I’ve asked a lot about how we can get it better under control, that question seems to go unanswered lately. I think asking your doctor about treatment plans, prognosis are important. Also any potential side effects of medications trialed. These are important things to know about. Also could the hives complicate another condition, or could the treatment complicate or impact the hives.

Reply from Lynn

It is important to ask, “what are the most common triggers for hives, and may I be tested for them?” If you are still symptomatic, after eliminating triggers from the first testing, ask, “is there any further testing for allergies… Even from other types of doctors?”

Reply from Christy

Talking to your doctor about your hives is very personal and will vary greatly from person to person. The most important thing you can talk to your doctor about is how your hives affect you. If your doctor doesn’t know the impact chronic hives have on your day to day living, they won’t know how to treat you properly. Try to be as open and honest as possible. If a medicine isn’t working for you, if you are unable to keep a job due to symptoms, or if your mental health is suffering because of your hives, those are all important things to discuss.

I would also recommend writing out a list of questions before you get to your appointment. Keep a running list between visits so you never forget something you want to ask. A list of questions will also ensure that you cover everything during your visit and make the appointment much more productive.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Chronic-Hives.com team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

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CommunityMember34 Member
Mine are diagnosed as Idiopathic.chronic Urticaria. Which means from an unknown source. Mine triggered at 35 At exactly the same time as a tumor of the pituitary gland. Which lead to secondary hypothyroidism. As well as 2 autoimmune diseases diagnosis. Hives can be a symptom of thyroid and or autoimmune disease. I have both. My allergy tests don't show much. Slightly allergic to mold. My overall IgE antibody serum levels are 7x what they are supposed to be and that's is while on Xolair. Mine actually don't seem to be any type of specific allergen related. I have eliminated every kind of product possible. Moved environments a couple times. Mine don't seem to improve. If I don't take Xolair. Then whatever biologic I am taking for my autoimmune disease at the time will trigger them. It's happened several times. With several meds. I hope that your Dr's are able to provide you some better answers. And I do know there are different types of hives as well. 
1. CJ Walker Member
 Hi! I was also diagnosed with idiopathic chronic urticaria at 37. It seemed as out of nowhere I started breaking out in hives which was worse at night. I originally thought that it was some something I ate or a new lotion that I recently tried. To this day, no one knows why, but what I do know was that my blood test results showed very high inflammation markers (twice the normal amount) and I had very low ferritin and iron levels. I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia. Six months later, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which turned out to be a misdiagnosis. I was correctly diagnosed with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) this year. Oddly enough, I've been in remission since my diabetes diagnosis. I do take Zyrtec everyday so I believe that is helping me. - CJ (Community Moderator)
2. CommunityMember34 Member
 <inline-mention username="CJ Walker" user-id="4575458"/> That is tough. So glad it turned out to be a misdiagnosis. My hives deem to affect my blood vessels. It feels like my arms and such can't swell any further. My eyes swell closed and my throat swells up, lips. It's crazy. I originally thought it was everything possible. I take Singulair. My inflammation markers are generally high as well i do think that I have it somewhat under control now. 4 years later. Best of luck to you!!! It's a strange issue to have.