My printable appointment folder
A collection to fill in: medication list, symptom summary, previous procedures, your questions, your care team's contact details and space for notes from the appointment — plus the question lists for each specialty.
Coordinating care
My HS Care Team
Learn what different healthcare professionals may contribute to HS care, how to prepare for appointments and which questions you may wish to discuss. This guide explains roles and care pathways. It does not recommend or replace individual medical care.
Why this page exists
“See a dermatologist” is the advice almost every source on HS gives. What comes after it is rarely explained: why a surgical opinion is suggested, when a wound-care nurse becomes involved, what a pain service actually does, who is keeping the overview.
HS is described internationally as a chronic condition whose care may involve several specialties, depending on the person. This is exactly where uncertainty appears — not because information about the disease is missing, but because it is unclear how the parts of the health system fit together.
This page closes that gap: it describes the specialties that may be involved, what an appointment there usually achieves, what you can bring, and which questions are worth raising — plus an appointment folder you can print.
The specialties at a glance
Every card follows the same structure: what the specialty usually does, when involvement might be considered, how to prepare, and which questions you may wish to discuss. Open only what is relevant to you.
Dermatologist In most health systems, the specialty that diagnoses HS and leads long-term medical management.
What this professional usually does
- Dermatologists diagnose hidradenitis suppurativa and describe how active the disease currently is.
- They discuss the medical treatment options, follow over time how a treatment is working, and adjust the plan together with you.
- In many systems, dermatology is also the specialty that arranges referrals to other members of the care team and brings their findings back together.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your symptoms and individual circumstances, your healthcare team may suggest dermatology as the starting point for suspected HS — or for a second opinion on an existing diagnosis.
- A review appointment may be considered when symptoms change, when a treatment has been running long enough to judge, or when you would like to revisit the plan.
- Whether you see a general dermatology practice or a clinic with a specific HS focus depends on what is available where you live.
How to prepare
- Bring a short symptom summary: which areas are affected, how often flares occur, and what a bad week looks like.
- Bring an up-to-date list of everything you take or apply — including anything bought without a prescription.
- Note previous treatments and procedures with dates, and how you got on with them.
- Write your questions down in advance and mark the two most important, in case time runs short.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- What is the goal of my current treatment?
- How would we recognise that it is working — and when will we review that together?
- Which parts of my care do you handle here, and which sit with someone else?
- Would it make sense to involve another member of the care team at this point?
- What should I do, and who should I contact, if things get worse between appointments?
General practitioner / primary care physician Often the first point of contact — and the practice that holds the overall picture of your health.
What this professional usually does
- Primary care is often where HS is first raised, and where dermatology involvement is usually arranged.
- The practice holds the overall record: other conditions, all prescriptions together, vaccinations, and findings from different specialties.
- It also handles the organisational side of a chronic condition — certificates, repeat prescriptions and links to other services.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your situation, primary care may be the quickest route when something changes and the next specialist appointment is weeks away.
- It may be involved when general health matters relevant to HS come up — routine checks, other long-term conditions, or reviewing all your medicines together.
- In some health systems every referral runs through primary care. Asking how that works locally is entirely reasonable.
How to prepare
- Say early in the appointment that you have HS and what you would like from this visit.
- Bring letters from dermatology or surgery — the practice may not have received them yet.
- Bring your complete medication list, including anything prescribed elsewhere.
- Note what has happened since your last visit, including appointments with other specialties.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- Do you have what the other clinicians last wrote about me?
- Who should I contact first when a flare is hard to manage?
- Which general health checks do you consider useful with a chronic inflammatory condition?
- Could we discuss whether involving another specialty would be helpful for me?
- How do I reach the practice when something cannot wait?
Surgeon (general, visceral or plastic surgery) Assesses whether a procedure could be an option for a specific area — and what recovery would involve.
What this professional usually does
- Surgeons assess individual sites, scarring and sinus tracts (tunnels), and describe which procedures exist for that specific area.
- Procedures in HS range from small interventions at a single site to larger operations. A surgical consultation explains what a procedure would change — and what it would not.
- It also plans what follows: wound healing, time away from work, and who cares for the wound afterwards.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on findings and your individual circumstances, your care team may consider a surgical assessment when an area keeps recurring in the same place, when tunnels have formed, or when scarring restricts movement.
- A surgical consultation is an assessment first, not a decision: it exists so you can weigh the option with information.
- Surgical and medical treatment are usually discussed together rather than as alternatives. How they fit is a question for both specialties.
How to prepare
- Note exactly which areas trouble you most — and since when.
- Bring your medication list; it is relevant to planning.
- Think through your practical constraints in advance: work, caring responsibilities, how much time off is realistic.
- Bring dermatology letters and any imaging you already have.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- What is the aim of the proposed procedure — and what would it not change?
- Which area exactly would it cover?
- What recovery should I expect: healing time, time off, restrictions?
- Who cares for the wound afterwards, and for how long?
- How does the procedure fit with my ongoing medical treatment — and who coordinates that?
- What happens if HS becomes active in a different area?
Wound-care specialist or nurse Practical support with dressings, drainage and protecting the surrounding skin.
What this professional usually does
- Wound-care professionals assess wounds and the surrounding skin, and build a routine that suits the body area and your daily life.
- They demonstrate techniques hands-on: how to apply and secure a dressing, how to handle wound fluid, how to protect the skin around it.
- They often have the most precise practical knowledge of what is available and reimbursable in your region.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your situation, your care team may consider wound-care input when dressings do not hold, when wound fluid is hard to manage, or after a procedure.
- Some HS clinics include wound care in-house; elsewhere it is a separate service. The Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation now also lists wound-care centres with HS experience.
- Asking to be shown wound care properly, rather than piecing it together yourself, is common and legitimate.
How to prepare
- Bring the dressings you currently use — or photographs of them in place.
- Note how often you change them and when something leaks.
- Describe a normal day: work, movement, showering, sleep.
- Note which part of the routine costs you the most time or patience.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- Does my current routine make sense for this body area?
- How often would you change a dressing here?
- How can I protect the skin around the wound?
- What should prompt me to get in touch sooner?
- Who is my contact between appointments?
Pain specialist or pain service Treats pain as a subject in its own right when it stays difficult despite treatment of the disease.
What this professional usually does
- Pain services assess pain as a problem in its own right: what type it is, when it occurs, and what it makes impossible for you.
- They work with a broader range than pain relief alone — including physical and psychological approaches that sit alongside medical treatment.
- Chronic pain in HS is well described in the literature and is explicitly recognised as something that can need its own attention.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your situation, your care team may consider involving a pain service when pain stays difficult even with HS treatment running, or when it dominates daily life and sleep.
- Asking about pain management is not a sign of coping badly: international guidance lists pain management among the specialties that may be involved in HS care.
- A sudden sharp increase in pain is an acute situation for your practice or out-of-hours service, not a question for a waiting-list appointment.
How to prepare
- Keep a short pain record for one or two weeks: when, where, how strong, what you were doing.
- Note what you have already tried and what it did.
- Note what pain currently prevents: sleep, walking, sitting, work.
- Bring your complete medication list.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- What type of pain do you see here?
- Which approaches could be considered alongside my HS treatment?
- What would we measure to know whether something is helping?
- Who coordinates this with my dermatology treatment?
- What do I do during an acute peak in pain?
Gynaecologist (where relevant) Relevant for some people when HS intersects with the cycle, contraception, fertility or the genital area.
What this professional usually does
- Gynaecologists assess symptoms in the genital and groin area, which can overlap with HS.
- They discuss contraception, cycle-related questions and fertility in the context of a chronic inflammatory condition.
- Around conception and in pregnancy, gynaecology and dermatology usually need to speak to each other — the coordination is the actual point here.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your individual circumstances, this may come up if flares follow a cyclical pattern, if the genital area is affected, or if you are thinking about pregnancy.
- Not everyone with HS needs gynaecology involvement. This section is here for the people for whom these questions arise.
- If you are planning a pregnancy, coordinating early often matters more than the order of the appointments.
How to prepare
- Note whether flares follow a pattern across your cycle.
- Bring your complete medication list — particularly relevant to conversations about contraception and conception.
- Say whether a dermatology treatment plan exists and who runs it.
- Note what you want answered first, if there is only room for one question.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- Could the symptoms in this area be something other than HS as well?
- How do my HS and this area affect each other?
- If I am considering pregnancy: who should coordinate with whom, and from when?
- May I ask you and my dermatology team to write to each other?
Mental health professional Support for the load a visible, painful and unpredictable condition places on daily life.
What this professional usually does
- Psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists work on the effects of chronic illness: low mood, anxiety, body image, avoidance, sleep, and the exhaustion of unpredictability.
- Support can be short and focused on one problem, or run longer — it is not all or nothing.
- Depressive and anxiety symptoms are reported more often in people with HS than in the general population. That is a documented pattern, not a personal failing.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your situation, your care team may raise this when mood, anxiety or avoidance are affecting daily life — or when you ask yourself.
- You do not have to be in crisis to receive support. If you are in an acute crisis, contact emergency or crisis services rather than waiting for an appointment.
- Whether access runs via primary care, dermatology or directly varies by region — that is an organisational question, not a medical one.
How to prepare
- Note what has changed, and since when.
- Note what you are avoiding: appointments, exercise, intimacy, social contact.
- Decide in advance how much you want to explain about HS itself; a paragraph as a summary is often enough.
- Note what you would concretely like support to change.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- What kind of support could be considered for this, and over what period does it usually run?
- How do we work with the fact that flares are unpredictable?
- Would it help if you and my dermatology team were in contact?
- What do I do in the time before it starts?
Dietitian (where appropriate) Where diet questions arise, a professional assesses what you actually eat instead of applying a general rule.
What this professional usually does
- Dietitians record what you actually eat and drink, and where the practical difficulties are.
- They can look at questions such as weight, other conditions, and whether an elimination diet you started yourself is nutritionally sustainable.
- There is no dietary pattern established as a treatment for HS. A professional can say what the evidence supports in your case and what it does not.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your situation, your care team may consider dietetic input when weight is a shared topic, when another condition requires dietary changes, or when you are already excluding foods and want to check that it is safe.
- Weight and diet come up in HS care because of documented associations — not as an explanation of why you have HS.
- If a conversation about diet feels like blame, it is legitimate to say so and ask what it is clinically aiming at.
How to prepare
- For a few days, simply note what you eat — honestly, not ideally.
- Note what you have already excluded and what you observed.
- Note practical constraints: budget, cooking facilities, shift work, other conditions.
- Bring your medication list.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- Does what I am currently doing look nutritionally sustainable?
- What does the evidence in HS actually support — and what does it not?
- Which single change would be worth trying first, and how would we tell whether it helps?
- How long should we observe something before judging it?
Smoking-cessation services Structured support for stopping smoking — one of the few factors with a consistent link to HS severity.
What this professional usually does
- Cessation services provide structure: an assessment, a plan, follow-up contact, and options that are more effective than willpower alone.
- They are set up for people who have tried before. A previous attempt that did not last counts as information, not as failure.
- Smoking is consistently associated with HS severity in the literature. That is why guidance lists cessation support among the services involved.
When involvement might be considered
- Depending on your situation, your care team may offer this if you smoke — and you can ask for it yourself at any time.
- This is about support, not blame: nobody chooses to have HS, and stopping smoking is hard.
- Access runs via primary care, your insurer or directly with a service, depending on the region. Ask which route is shortest for you.
How to prepare
- Note roughly how much you smoke and when the urge is strongest.
- Note what you tried before and what happened then.
- Bring your medication list; it is relevant to what can be offered.
- Think about which everyday situations would be hardest.
Questions you might wish to discuss
- Which support options are available to me here?
- What has worked for people in similar situations?
- What happens if I slip — do I lose my place in the programme?
- How long does the service stay with me?
How the people involved work together
Coordination is the part of care no single specialty owns — and the part that most often lands with the patient. Four practices help, and none of them require medical knowledge.
Establish who coordinates
When several specialties are involved, one usually keeps the overview — often dermatology, in some systems primary care. If nobody explicitly holds that role, it lands with you. It is worth raising openly.
Wording you can use
- Who keeps the overview across the different specialties in my case?
- Who do I contact first when I do not know where a question belongs?
- Is there an HS clinic or a team here that works together?
Ask for information to be shared
Reports do not automatically arrive everywhere. Explicitly asking that specialties write to each other and that you receive a copy is common and usually straightforward — but it has to be asked for.
Wording you can use
- Would you send a report to my other clinicians?
- Can I have a copy for my own records?
- Which information from this appointment do the other specialties need?
Keep one record you take everywhere
The most reliable connection between specialties is often you. One collection — medication list, symptom summary, procedures so far, letters, questions — saves time in every appointment and stops you retelling the same history from memory.
Wording you can use
- Would you like to see my medication list and symptom summary?
- Should I document anything specific before the next appointment?
- Which documents should I bring to an appointment with another specialty?
Do not leave the appointment open
The last two minutes of an appointment often decide whether anything happens afterwards. It helps to repeat out loud what was agreed, who takes the next step, and how you would notice that something is not going as planned.
Wording you can use
- Have I understood correctly that the next step is …?
- Who takes that step, and by when should I hear about it?
- What do I do if I have heard nothing by then?
Find providers with an HS focus
This page explains the roles. When you are looking for somewhere concrete to go, the specialist directory lists practices and clinics with HS experience — filterable by services, care setting and region.
Common questions about care
Do I need all of these specialties?
No. Most people with HS are in contact with one or two of these specialties, and many see only dermatology or primary care for years. This page lists what exists so that a referral does not come as a surprise — not a set of boxes to tick. What makes sense in your case is something your care team assesses with you.
Why was I referred to surgery when I am already on medical treatment?
In HS, surgical and medical treatment are often discussed as two parts of one plan rather than as alternatives: one addresses inflammatory activity, the other a specific area that has changed structurally. A surgical consultation is an assessment first. How the two fit together, and who coordinates that, are good questions for both specialties.
Do my clinicians automatically talk to each other?
Not reliably. Reports get written but do not always arrive everywhere, and practices rarely see the same record. That is why it helps to ask explicitly that specialties exchange information and that you receive a copy — and to keep your own collection that you take to every appointment.
How do I prepare for an appointment with a new specialty?
Four things carry almost everywhere: an up-to-date list of everything you take or apply, a short symptom summary, an overview of previous treatments and procedures — and your questions, written down, with the two most important marked. The appointment folder on this page collects exactly that for printing.
Is this page a substitute for medical advice?
No. It explains roles and processes within the health system so that appointments are easier to prepare for. It makes no diagnoses, recommends no treatments, and does not decide who you should see. Those decisions sit with you and your care team.
Scientific research and editorial review
Last editorially reviewed: · Next scheduled review:
International guidance and consensus work describe HS as a chronic, systemically relevant disease whose care may — depending on the person — involve several specialties. Which ones is well documented; how the collaboration is organised differs substantially between countries, regions and individual services.
This page therefore describes roles and preparation, not referral rules. It contains no criteria for when a referral should happen, no self-assessment, and no statements about individual medicines — those decisions belong in the conversation with your care team.
The content is sourced and reviewed on a schedule. If a cited guideline or consensus statement changes, the page is updated.
Related resources on Acne Inversa Life
My HS Home Your appointment questions, saved tools and more in one place — no account needed. HS Specialist Directory Find providers with an HS focus — filterable by services and care setting. Symptom Tracker Log flares, pain and affected areas — the figures for your symptom summary. Prepare for an HS Treatment Conversation A neutral tool for ordering your priorities and questions before a treatment discussion. HS Wound Care & Dressing Guide Situation-based help with drainage, dressings and protecting the surrounding skin. HS at Work Record how HS affects your working day and prepare conversations with your care team or employer. HS, Pregnancy & Family Planning What should be coordinated before, during and after a pregnancy — and by whom. Clinical Trials for Hidradenitis Suppurativa Understand HS research and find recruiting study locations. Your First 30 Days A guided programme for the weeks after a diagnosis. Ask the HS Community Moderated answers to questions other people with HS have asked.
Sources
- Directory of providers with an HS focus Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation — shows how central access to experienced providers is
- Wound-care providers with experience in HS Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation — wound care as a distinct part of care
- Hidradenitis suppurativa: Diagnosis and treatment American Academy of Dermatology — emphasises early specialist involvement and coordinated care
- Improving hidradenitis suppurativa management: consensus statements from physicians' and patients' perspectives Archives of Dermatological Research, 2024 — describes multidisciplinary care and gaps in coordination
- A practical guide for primary care providers on timely diagnosis and comprehensive care strategies for HS The American Journal of Medicine, 2022 — the role of primary care and how the specialties interact
- European S2k guideline for hidradenitis suppurativa / acne inversa, part 2: treatment Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 2025 — situates the specialties involved
- Hidradenitis suppurativa — patient information MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medicine) — foundational information that does not map the care pathway