What to Ask Your Doctor When You've Been Diagnosed with Testicular Cancer

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is Dr. Susan Jewell. Now in this clip we're going to talk about some of the questions that you can ask your medical doctor when you have been diagnosed with testicular cancer. So that you can also have a strong input in the management of your, of your cancer along with the health care, care givers. So some of the questions to address and there's a it doesn't matter how trivial the question is. If it's something that you are concerned about or you want to know about, you want to get some recommendation or advice then you should write it down on your list before you go and see the doctor. So what are some of the questions you could ask? You could say, first thing you have to ask the doctor is what kind of testicular cancer have you been diagnosed with? Because there are different types of testicular cancer and a that a have been found. So you need to ask what particular type and the doctor will tell you from the pathology after they've taken the testicular biopsy from the mass tissue itself. Then the next question is you can ask well has the cancer spread? Has the cancer is it still retained in the in the testicle itself or has it actually spread out and past and come out of the testicle wall and into the surrounding structures? You know the muscles, the bone? So you need to ask that question, that's important question to ask. Then the next thing is you could ask what stage is my cancer? Because cancer a for testicle cancer it's based on the stage in terms of how where the location the cancer spread to and how far it's spread to. Has it affected your nodes? How many nodes have been affected? And has it spread to your bones? Has it metastasized? So there are different staging for your cancer and so you need to ask that so you know exactly what the staging is and therefore you would know the prognosis, or the outcome. Then of course very important is to know ask your doctor about your treatment choices because there are several treatments depending on the stage of your cancer and a and a so you need to understand that the stage of your cancer will dictate the treatment options the doctors going to give to you. Know if you're at the early stages of testicular cancer then the number one treatment choice would be to have surgery or Orchiectomy removal of the whole testicle. Now when you're talking about treatment you also have to talk about the risk factors associated with the treatment. What are the risks that you're going to encounter? Is the treatment is the surgery or the treatment that the doctors offering you, is the benefit, is it going to override the risks? So you need to also be fully aware of that, the risk and benefits of the treatment or the procedure. So you need to ask the doctor that and they should fully inform you on that before you make a final decision as to whether you want to go ahead with the treatment or not. And then one of the some of the question is to ask is what is my survival prognosis? And the doctor will tell you based on a lot of the information he's gathered on your particular condition and the stage and also you know, your profile so these are some of the questions that you need to think about and write down before you go and see the doctor himself or her or your female doctor and see before you meet them just so you can get a well informed counseling session."