Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're likely to start by first seeing your primary care doctor or a gynecologist. However, after your initial appointment, you may be referred immediately to a gynecologic oncologist.
Because appointments can be brief and there's often a lot of ground to cover, it's a good idea to be well prepared for your appointment. Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment, and what you can expect from your doctor.
What you can do
- Write down any symptoms you're experiencing, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment.
- Make a list of all medications, as well as any vitamins or supplements, that you're taking. Also note if you have used any type of hormonal therapy in the past, including birth control pills, tamoxifen or other hormonal treatments.
- Ask a family member or friend to come with you, if possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to soak up all the information provided to you during an appointment. Someone who accompanies you may remember something that you missed or forgot.
- Write down questions to ask your doctor.
Your time with your doctor is limited, so preparing a list of questions ahead of time will help you make the most of your time together. List your questions from most important to least important in case time runs out. For endometrial cancer, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
- What's the most likely cause of my symptoms?
- Are there any other possible causes for my symptoms?
- What kinds of tests do I need to diagnose endometrial cancer?
- Are there other tests for staging the cancer?
- What types of treatments are available? What kinds of side effects can I expect from each treatment? How will these treatments affect my sexuality?
- What do you feel is the best course of action for me?
- What are the alternatives to the primary approach that you're suggesting?
- I have these other health conditions. How can I best manage them together?
- Are there any restrictions that I need to follow?
- Has my cancer spread? What stage is it?
- What's my prognosis?
- Should I see a specialist? What will that cost, and will my insurance cover seeing a specialist?
- Are there any brochures or other printed material that I can take home with me? What Web sites do you recommend visiting?
In addition to the questions that you've prepared to ask your doctor, don't hesitate to ask questions during your appointment at any time that you don't understand something.
What to expect from your doctor
Your doctor will likely have a number of questions for you. If you're ready to answer them, it may help reserve time to go over any points you want to spend more time on. Your doctor may ask:
- Have you experienced any usual vaginal bleeding or discharge? How often does that occur?
- Do you have any pelvic pain?
- Have you had any other symptoms?
- Have your symptoms been continuous, or occasional?
- What, if anything, seems to improve your symptoms?
- What, if anything, appears to worsen your symptoms?
- Have you taken estrogen-only hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms?
- Do you have any personal history of cancer?
- Have you ever been told you have HNPCC mutations?
- Detailed guide: Endometrial cancer. American Cancer Society. http://documents.cancer.org/140.00/140.00.pdf. Accessed Sept. 9, 2008.
- Endometrial cancer treatment (PDQ). National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/endometrial/patient/allpages/print. Accessed Sept. 16, 2008.
- Bakkum-Gamez JN, et al. Current issues in the management of endometrial cancer. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2008;83(1):97-112.
- Sorosky JI. Endometrial cancer. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2008;111(2, Part 1):436-447.
- Moynihan T (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Sept. 21, 2008.
