How to report side effects

List If you want your doctor to understand your side effects and how they affect you, you need to be able to describe them clearly.

Your doctor can then check for other possible causes (ie that diarrhoea is not related to food poisoning; or that low sex drive is not related to low testosterone levels).

The best way to do this is to keep a side effects diary from when you start a new treatment until you next see your doctor.

Information about how to describe symptoms generally includes information about the following areas:

Frequency

How often do you get symptoms?
Once or twice a week? Once every day, or 5 – 10 times a day etc?
Do they occur at night as well as during the day?

Duration

How long do the symptoms last?
If you feel sick or get headaches, does this last for 20 minutes or for 3 – 4 hours, or for different times?
Is there a pattern to when they occur – ie when you take your medications or at a regular time afterwards?

Severity

How bad are the symptoms?
Often it helps to rate them on a scale (from 1 for mild to 5 for severe).
A scale is a useful tool for describing anything that involves pain.
Recording how severe side effects are when they occur is better than recording them later.
Have you noticed anything that helps tp reduce or stop them?

Quality of life

A side effects diary is included in this guide. Take this diary with you when you see your doctor at your next appointment.

This can really help your doctor understand how difficult the side effects are for you.

Many people put up with chronic diarrhoea without explaining to their doctor that it stops them ever going to the pub or the cinema.
If you are feeling more anxious or nervous, are not sleeping properly, have a lower sex drive, have experienced taste changes, or are too nauseous to eat proper meals, it is important that your doctor understands this.

Symptoms of lipodystrophy - the term for body fat changes - are difficult to measure. Although minor changes may not be a problem, more severe symptoms can change your whole outlook on life, and lead to depression.

If side effects affect your adherence (ie you are not taking all your meds at the correct time), you must tell your doctor about this.

Side effects diary, take this diary with you when you see your doctor at your next appointment.