What questions do you ask your doctor during a virtual/first consultation?

[FlushRojThing]

Hello everyone, I posted here about choosing doctors in India or Turkey and got a lot of good feedback. I'm looking to understand what sort of questions I need to ask them during consultations

Since being on this forum, I am preparing to do online consultations with a few doctors in India (Dr. Suneet Soni, Dr. Kannaiah Thallapally, Dr. Malay Mehta) and in Turkey(Dr. Bekir Bek, Dr. Kaan Pekiner.) 

About me: 
1.⁠ 28, M
2.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠I currently use 0.5 mg Dutasteride, 10% Minoxidil every day. Additionally, I take biotin supplements, and Vitamin B12 every day. I also underwent 5 PRP sessions in 2021 and 3 PRP sessions in Jan-March 2024. 
3.⁠ ⁠⁠My hair loss started 5 years ago. 
4. ⁠⁠My hair loss has increased significantly in the last 8-10 months. 
5.⁠ ⁠⁠Male pattern baldness runs on my paternal side. My father is bald and lost most of his crown and vertex area by 33. 
6. ⁠⁠I have not undergone a hair transplant before. 
7.⁠ ⁠⁠I have not undergone SMP. 
8.⁠ ⁠⁠My hair is thick on the sides, but very scanty on the crown and vertex area. My donor area is pretty good, and my beard is quite thick too. 
9.⁠ ⁠⁠My expectations from a transplant are to have a good, natural looking hairline and good coverage in the crown and vertex area.
10.⁠ ⁠⁠I want to get the surgery done in last week of November-first week of December.


I want to know a list of questions that I need to be asking them to gauge responses and prepare myself. 

[Paul_]

Why only Turkey or India? I imagine it's budget reasons. Be careful, you usually get what you pay for, and out of experience I would always suggest saving and going for the very best rather than taking chances

Still, if you're decided on this course of action

1. Show me cases similar to mine, how they turned out (detailed photos, hairline close-up and donor included)
2. Should I hold off for a few more years / until my hairloss stabilizes (this would me more of a trick question, honestly if your hairloss is forging ahead in spite of all the medication and treatment you're doing, you really should reconsider a HT to begin with)
3. What will my HT look like / what will I do if my hairloss continues in the same pattern
4. Worst case scenario (your dad as reference for how you may turn out) how many grafts will I need over my lifetime
5. Who is performing the surgery (extractions, making the sites, implanting)?
6. How many years of experience do the techs have, how are they trained / overseen?
7. (if you're open to it) Will FUT be a working option in my case, are you able to perform it?

These are main risk management questions that come to mind. The most important thing however is to have a real comparison base to these questions, hence you should be running at least 2 additional consultations with top surgeons (Drs Ball, Muresanu, Feriduni, Bisanga...) to get their answers that you can really trust. Anything you get from your search should be evaluated against these reference consultations y

All the best!

[Al - Moderator]

On 8/11/2024 at 6:34 PM, FlushRojThing said:

4. ⁠⁠My hair loss has increased significantly in the last 8-10 months.

 

This can be a problem. You say you are on hairloss meds, but you are still losing hair rapidly. This doesn't sound good. If you get a hair transplant now without your hairloss being somewhat stable then you are at risk of needing another transplant in a year or two to replace the hair that is still falling out. In a case like that there are a couple of things you need to know.

1. Don't try to get full coverage and use up too much of your available donor because you may need a lot more donor for later.

2. realize that whatever amount of money you spend now, you will probably need to spend a similar amount again soon, so be prepared to pay double and have more hair transplants than you expected.

 

[toughluck69]

hey dude have reached out to any doctors yet.... what are they saying