Flying Home After Ureteroscopy With a Stent: What International Patients Plan For

The boarding pass is already printed, folded into the same envelope as the discharge letter. Somewhere between the two sits a small question that nobody mentioned when the stone was still the only problem: is flying after ureteroscopy stent placement actually a sensible idea, or is it the kind of thing you only find out about at 35,000 feet?

People who travel for stone surgery, whether across a border or across an ocean, meet this question at a strange moment. They feel better than they did a week ago. The colicky pain is gone. Yet a soft plastic tube now runs from kidney to bladder, the urine in the bowl is the color of weak rosé, and the urge to find a bathroom arrives every forty minutes.

None of that is unusual. Most of it is predictable, and a surprising amount can be planned for. What follows is the evidence-based version of that planning conversation, the one worth having before the taxi to the airport, not in the departure lounge.

What a ureteroscopy with a stent actually involves

Ureteroscopy is a procedure in which a thin telescope is passed through the urethra and bladder and up into the ureter, the narrow tube that carries urine from each kidney to the bladder. No incision is made. The surgeon sees the stone on a screen, breaks it with a laser or retrieves it with a tiny basket, and withdraws the instrument. Johns Hopkins Medicine describes it as a same-day procedure for most people, performed under general or spinal anesthesia.

The stent is the part patients did not expect to think about. A ureteral stent is a soft, hollow tube, usually about as wide as a strand of cooked spaghetti, with a curl at each end so it stays anchored in the kidney above and the bladder below. The ureter is irritated and slightly swollen after instruments have passed through it, and swelling in a tube that narrow can block urine the way a pinched straw blocks a drink. The stent holds the channel open while the lining settles.

Here is the detail that matters for travel: the stent lives entirely inside you. Nothing hangs outside the body unless the surgeon has left a fine tether, often called a stent string, taped to the skin so the stent can later be pulled out without another scope. Both arrangements are common; Cleveland Clinic notes the string version allows removal without a return to the operating room.

Because the lower curl sits in the bladder, it touches the bladder wall every time you move or the bladder empties. That is why the stent announces itself. It is not a sign that anything has gone wrong; it is a mechanical fact of where the tube sits.

Why surgeons leave a stent in, and for how long

Surgeons do not place stents for fun, and many patients are surprised to learn that not every ureteroscopy needs one. The decision usually turns on what the ureter looked like at the end of the procedure. If the passage was tight, if the stone was large or impacted, if the ureter was widened with a sheath, or if more than one procedure is planned, a stent reduces the risk of the kidney backing up with urine while swelling resolves.

How long it stays depends on the reason it went in. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) describes stents after stone treatment as temporary, typically remaining for days to a few weeks. Cleveland Clinic gives a similar picture: short placements for straightforward stone surgery, longer ones when the ureter is narrowed or a second stage is planned, with a maximum interval set by the surgeon because a stent left too long collects mineral deposits and becomes hard to remove.

That last point deserves emphasis. A retained stent is a genuine complication, not an inconvenience. Encrustation, the build-up of stone-like crust along the tube, can turn a five-minute clinic removal into a second surgery. The international patient is more exposed to this risk than anyone, because the surgeon who placed the stent will not be the one who removes it, and the follow-up letter has to cross time zones and health systems.

The practical consequence: before leaving the country where the procedure happened, you want to know three things in writing. When the stent was placed. When it must be out by. Who, at home, has agreed to take it out.

Is flying after ureteroscopy stent placement safe? What the evidence shows

Searching for a published rule on flying after ureteroscopy stent placement turns up less than people expect. No major urology or aviation medicine body sets a mandatory number of days, and the trusted patient resources (NIDDK, NHS, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic) do not address air travel directly. That silence is itself informative. Ureteroscopy involves no incision, no body cavity opened to air, and no wound that cabin pressure changes could affect, so the specific hazards that delay flying after bowel or lung surgery do not apply.

What does apply is a set of general principles. The first is anesthesia recovery. Johns Hopkins advises that patients should not drive or make important decisions for 24 hours after general anesthesia and should have an adult with them; a flight on the day of surgery is, in practice, incompatible with that. The second is stability: the person should be passing urine, keeping fluids down, free of fever and managing pain with their prescribed plan. The third is the stent itself, which is well tolerated by many but can make the cabin environment miserable if symptoms are not anticipated.

The honest summary is this: the evidence does not say flying is dangerous after this procedure, and it does not say any particular day is safe. It says readiness is a clinical judgment made by the operating surgeon, patient by patient, based on how the procedure went and how recovery is going. A surgeon who found a tight, bleeding ureter will counsel differently from one who removed a small stone in twenty minutes. The question to ask is not “Is it allowed?” but “Given what you saw, when would you be comfortable with me on a long flight, and what would change your mind?”

How long after ureteroscopy can I fly? Typical ranges, not promises

Because no guideline fixes a date, the useful answer is a range tied to what recovery usually looks like. Johns Hopkins notes that most people return to ordinary activities within a day or two of ureteroscopy, and NIDDK describes it as an outpatient procedure after which people typically go home the same day. Surgeons who see international patients often translate that into a minimum of one to two nights locally before a long-haul departure, enough time for the anesthesia to clear, for any early bleeding to settle, and for a first follow-up conversation if something does not feel right.

Several factors stretch that range. A ureteral access sheath, which is a wider tube passed up the ureter to let the scope move in and out, means more irritation and often more bleeding in the first days. A stone that required prolonged lasering, a kidney that was infected at the time of surgery, or any fever in the first 24 hours all push surgeons toward waiting longer. So does a flight that lasts more than a few hours, because the risk of travel-related blood clots rises with duration, and the CDC’s travel health guidance treats journeys over four hours as the threshold for added precautions.

Shorter waits are sometimes reasonable for a straightforward case, a short flight and a patient who is otherwise well. Longer waits make sense when any of the complicating factors above are present. Either way, the clock is not the real test. A person who feels well on day two is a better candidate than one who still has fever on day four, and the surgeon is the only person who knows which column you belong in.

Build the itinerary with slack. A change fee is cheaper than a hospital visit in a city where you do not speak the language.

Who is usually cleared to travel soon, and who is usually asked to wait

Surgeons tend to sort patients into two broad groups when travel comes up, and knowing which group you fall into helps set expectations before the conversation.

The group usually cleared sooner shares a recognizable profile. The stone was removed completely in a single procedure. The ureter was not tight or injured. There was no infection in the urine before surgery. Pain is mild to moderate and controlled with the prescribed plan. Urine is pink or light red rather than dark with clots. Temperature has stayed normal. The person has someone travelling with them, or at least a reliable contact at the destination, and a confirmed stent removal appointment at home.

The group usually asked to wait, or to stay nearby for a scheduled check, looks different. Any fever after surgery is the strongest signal, because fever with a stent can mean a kidney infection that needs assessment within hours, not days. Heavy bleeding, difficulty passing urine, or pain that is escalating rather than easing all prompt caution. So does a known infected stone, a solitary kidney, chronic kidney disease, or a condition such as diabetes that raises infection risk. People taking anticoagulant medicines, drugs that reduce the blood’s ability to clot, often need their plan for restarting those medicines settled before a flight, which is a decision for the prescribing clinician alone.

A third category is easy to overlook: the person whose stent was placed as a first stage, with a second procedure planned. For them the travel question is not “when can I fly home?” but “should I fly home at all before stage two?” That depends on how far apart the stages are and who will do the second one, and it needs a frank conversation with the whole treating team rather than a decision made at the ticket counter.

Ureteral stent symptoms: what is normal on a long journey

If you know what a stent feels like before boarding, the cabin becomes far less alarming. Cleveland Clinic lists the common experiences plainly: a frequent and urgent need to urinate, a burning sensation when passing urine, a dull ache in the flank or lower abdomen, and blood in the urine. Men sometimes feel discomfort at the tip of the penis; women may notice bladder pressure. These happen because the lower curl of the stent irritates the bladder lining, and because the stent allows a small backflow of urine toward the kidney each time the bladder contracts, which is felt as a brief flank ache when you urinate.

Blood in the urine is the symptom that frightens travellers most and is usually the least worrying. The urine may stay pink or rust-colored for the entire time the stent is in, and it typically darkens after long periods of sitting or walking, both of which an airport supplies in abundance. Light bleeding that clears with fluids is expected. Urine that looks like undiluted red wine, or that contains clots big enough to make urination difficult, is a different matter and belongs in the red-flag section below.

Frequency and urgency are the symptoms that reshape the journey. A bladder that signals every half hour on the ground will signal just as often in the air, and the seatbelt sign does not negotiate. Choosing an aisle seat near a lavatory is not fussiness; it is the single most practical accommodation most patients make. Dehydration makes stent irritation worse because concentrated urine stings an irritated bladder, so the common instinct to drink less before a flight to avoid bathroom trips tends to backfire.

Some surgeons prescribe medicines that relax the smooth muscle of the ureter and bladder neck, a class known as alpha-blockers, or medicines that calm bladder contractions. Whether you take anything, and how, is entirely between you and the prescribing clinician; the point here is only that such options exist and are worth asking about before you leave rather than after you land.

Flying with a kidney stent: the day-of-travel plan that works

Flying with a kidney stent is mostly a logistics problem, and logistics respond well to lists made the evening before.

Documents first. Carry the operation note or discharge summary, the stent details (type, date placed, date due out, whether a string is attached), a list of current medicines by generic name, and the contact details for the operating surgeon and the clinician at home who has agreed to remove the stent. Keep these in hand luggage, not the hold, and consider a photographed copy on your phone. If you were given imaging on a disc or a link, bring that too; an unfamiliar emergency department will be grateful for it.

Medicines travel in their original labelled packaging in hand luggage, with the prescription or letter if the destination country requires one. This is practical advice, not a recommendation about what to take; the prescribing clinician decides that.

Seat selection matters more than people think. An aisle seat near a lavatory reduces the stress of urgency and makes it easier to stand and walk, which protects against clots. Loose clothing without a tight waistband is kinder to a tender flank. A small pad or liner, for any sex, deals quietly with the occasional dribble of blood-tinged urine that stent patients sometimes experience with coughing or standing.

Fluids on board should be steady rather than heroic. NIDDK’s general advice for people prone to stones is to drink enough to produce roughly two liters of urine a day; on a flight that translates to accepting water each time it is offered and going easy on alcohol and large volumes of coffee, both of which can increase urine output in a way that feels worse rather than better with a stent.

Finally, tell the cabin crew discreetly if you have a medical reason for frequent lavatory use. They will not ask for details and will usually make the seatbelt sign less of a battle.

Clot prevention and mobility in the air after surgery

Deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot that forms in a deep vein, usually in the leg, is the one travel risk that applies to every recent surgical patient regardless of what was operated on. Surgery itself raises the risk, immobility raises it further, and the CDC’s travel health guidance identifies journeys of more than four hours as the point where sitting still begins to matter. Dehydration, which stent patients are tempted into, adds a third strand.

The mechanism is simple. Blood in the calf veins depends on the squeezing action of leg muscles to return to the heart. Sit still for hours and that pump stops; blood pools and can clot. A clot that breaks off and travels to the lungs, a pulmonary embolism, is the serious consequence. The NHS lists swelling, warmth and pain in one calf as the signs of a leg clot, and sudden breathlessness or chest pain as signs that a clot may have reached the lungs.

Prevention follows directly from the mechanism. The CDC suggests getting up and walking the aisle every two to three hours on long flights, and doing seated exercises in between: pointing and flexing the feet, drawing circles with the ankles, lifting the heels and then the toes. These are small movements that keep the calf pump working, and they are the reason an aisle seat helps on two fronts. Staying hydrated keeps the blood less viscous. Avoiding sedation that leaves you asleep in a cramped position for the whole flight is sensible for the same reason.

Compression stockings reduce the risk of travel-related clots in people at elevated risk, and the NHS describes them as a reasonable precaution for long journeys. Whether you are in the elevated-risk category, and whether any clot-preventing medicine is appropriate, depends on your history and is a decision for your surgeon. Ask the question before you leave; it is a routine one and surgeons expect it.

A planning table for the week around the flight

Timelines help most when they are laid side by side. The table below gathers what the cited sources describe as typical, not what any patient is guaranteed. Every row is a prompt for a conversation with the treating team, not a substitute for one.

Phase	What typically happens	What to confirm with the team
Day of surgery	Outpatient procedure; home the same day for most people (NIDDK). Anesthesia effects persist for about 24 hours (Johns Hopkins).	Was a stent placed? Does it have a string? When must it be out by?
First 1–2 days	Pink urine, urgency, flank ache common (Cleveland Clinic). Most people resume ordinary activity within a day or two (Johns Hopkins).	Any fever, heavy bleeding or inability to pass urine changes the plan.
Before the flight	Surgeon reviews recovery and agrees readiness; no published rule fixes the day.	Who do I call en route? What symptoms should delay departure?
In the air	Clot risk rises on journeys over 4 hours (CDC). Walk every 2–3 hours; seated leg exercises; steady fluids.	Do I need compression stockings or any clot-preventing plan?
Days to weeks at home	Stent remains for days to a few weeks after stone surgery (NIDDK; Cleveland Clinic). Symptoms persist until removal.	Is the removal appointment booked? Who reviews imaging or stone analysis?
Stent removal	Brief clinic procedure via cystoscope, or string pull; symptoms usually ease over the following days (Cleveland Clinic).	What follow-up or prevention plan comes next?

Two rows carry more weight than the others. The row before the flight, because the readiness judgment belongs to the surgeon who saw your ureter. And the stent removal row, because it is the step most likely to fall through the cracks when care crosses a border, and the one with the most serious consequences if it does.

What the following days and weeks usually look like

Once home, the stent rather than the surgery dominates the calendar. The first week tends to be the most uncomfortable: urgency is at its peak, the flank aches with each trip to the bathroom, and the urine may still be tinged. Many people notice that symptoms fluctuate with activity. A long walk, a bumpy car ride or a day on your feet can turn clear urine pink again by evening; a quiet day usually settles it. Cleveland Clinic’s description of stent symptoms matches this pattern, and it is the single most reassuring thing to know in advance.

Fatigue is common and under-discussed. General anesthesia, a disturbed sleep pattern from night-time bathroom trips, jet lag and the low-level inflammation of healing combine into a tiredness that can feel out of proportion to a procedure with no incision. It usually lifts as sleep normalizes and the stent comes out.

Work and exercise return on a sliding scale. Desk work is often possible within days, as Johns Hopkins suggests for ordinary activity; heavy lifting or vigorous exercise may be more comfortable after stent removal simply because jostling irritates the bladder. Sexual activity is not medically prohibited with a stent in most cases, though it may be uncomfortable, and anyone with a stent string needs to know how to avoid tugging it.

Hydration remains the quiet workhorse of this period. Dilute urine stings less and helps flush the small fragments that lasers leave behind, which can continue to pass for a week or two after surgery. Passing a fragment can cause a brief return of colicky pain; a fragment that causes pain which does not ease, or that comes with fever, is a reason to call.

The weeks end with stent removal, and most people describe the relief as immediate: the urgency fades within a day or two, the ache disappears, and the urine clears. Then the attention turns to the question stone patients are often asked least about: why the stone formed in the first place, and what the stone analysis and blood or urine tests suggest about preventing the next one.

Stent removal after ureteroscopy: arranging it before you leave

Stent removal after ureteroscopy is short, and that is exactly why it is easy to under-plan. Without a string, removal is done with a flexible cystoscope, a thin camera passed through the urethra into the bladder, usually under local anesthetic gel in a clinic room; the stent is grasped and withdrawn in a matter of minutes. With a string, Cleveland Clinic notes the patient or a clinician can pull the stent out at home or in clinic, again in moments. Neither version normally requires a return to the operating room.

The international patient’s problem is not the procedure but the hand-off. The surgeon who placed the stent is in another country. The clinician at home may not have met you, may not have the operation note, and may not have an appointment slot within the window the surgeon set. If that window closes, the stent sits longer than intended, and encrustation becomes a real possibility. NIDDK and Cleveland Clinic both frame stents as temporary devices with a defined lifespan for precisely this reason.

The solution is to book removal before you fly, not after you land. Concretely, that means: a named clinician or urology service at home that has agreed to remove the stent; a confirmed date within the surgeon’s stated window; a copy of the operation note already sent to that service; and a clear statement of whether a string is attached, since string removal needs no cystoscope and can often be done sooner.

Ask the operating surgeon to write the removal deadline into the discharge letter in plain language. “Stent must be removed by” followed by a date is unambiguous; “follow-up as appropriate” is not. If a second-stage procedure is planned, the removal plan folds into that and the whole sequence needs to be agreed before departure, including who performs stage two.

What people often get wrong about flying after ureteroscopy with a stent

Myths cluster around this topic because the information gap is real. Here are the ones that cause the most trouble, and what the evidence actually shows.

“Cabin pressure will move or dislodge the stent.” It will not. The stent sits inside fluid-filled tubes with no air space for pressure changes to act on, and both ends are curled to anchor it. Cleveland Clinic lists migration as a possible complication, but it relates to anatomy and placement, not altitude.

“Blood in the urine on the plane means something has torn.” Pink or rust-colored urine is a listed, expected stent symptom and commonly worsens with activity. The concerning version is heavy, clot-filled bleeding or an inability to pass urine, which is a different picture entirely.

“Drinking less will make the flight easier.” Concentrated urine irritates a bladder already irritated by a stent, and dehydration raises clot risk on long journeys. Steady fluids make the journey more comfortable, not less, even if the bathroom trips are more frequent.

“If I feel fine, I can forget about the stent until it bothers me.” This is the most dangerous myth. A retained stent encrusts and can require surgery to remove; feeling well says nothing about whether the deadline has passed. The removal date is a hard appointment, not a suggestion.

“Airport body scanners will detect the stent and cause problems.” A ureteral stent is a soft polymer tube inside the body and is not something security screening is designed to flag; it does not require a medical card or special declaration.

“There must be an official number of days before flying is allowed.” There is not. The absence of a rule is not permission to leave early; it means the judgment sits with the surgeon, who weighs how the procedure went against the length and nature of your journey.

Questions to ask your care team before the flight

Surgeons are used to the travel question, but they answer best when it is asked specifically. The list below is written to be read aloud in the consultation; strike out what does not apply and write the answers down, because anesthesia and relief both impair memory.

• Was a stent placed, and does it have a string? What type, and when exactly must it be removed by?
• Given what you saw in my ureter, when would you be comfortable with me on a flight of this length, and what would change your mind?
• What symptoms should make me delay departure, and what symptoms should send me to an emergency department en route?
• Is my clot risk on a long flight elevated by my history, and do you suggest compression stockings or any other precaution?
• If I take blood-thinning medicines, when do I restart them, and who confirms that?
• What are the typical stent symptoms I should expect, and is there anything you can prescribe to make them more manageable?
• Were all stone fragments removed, or should I expect to pass fragments at home?
• Has the operation note been sent to the clinician who will remove the stent at home, and can I have a copy for hand luggage?
• Is a second procedure planned, and if so, where and by whom?
• Who do I contact, and how, if something goes wrong after I land? Will you communicate with my home clinician?
• Will the stone be analyzed, and who will discuss the results and a prevention plan with me?
• What is the one thing you most want me to remember about the next two weeks?

The last question is not a courtesy. Surgeons often have a specific worry about a specific patient that does not make it into the standard leaflet, and asking directly gives them permission to say it.

When to call your doctor

Most stent symptoms are uncomfortable rather than dangerous, and the aim of this section is to separate the two clearly, because an international traveller needs a short, unambiguous list rather than a nuanced one.

Seek urgent medical care, wherever you are, for any of the following. A fever of 38°C (100.4°F) or higher, or shaking chills, because infection behind a stent can escalate quickly and the NHS flags fever with urinary symptoms as a reason for prompt assessment. Pain in the flank or abdomen that is severe, escalating, or not relieved by the prescribed plan. Inability to pass urine, or passing only small amounts with a sense of a full bladder. Urine that is heavily bloody with clots, or bleeding that is getting worse rather than better. Nausea and vomiting that stop you keeping fluids down. Confusion, dizziness or feeling faint.

Treat the following as an emergency in any country: sudden breathlessness, chest pain, coughing up blood, or a swollen, painful, warm calf. These are the signs the NHS and CDC list for a blood clot in the leg or lungs, and they need assessment immediately, not after landing.

Contact your surgeon or home clinician the same day, without alarm, for symptoms that are new but not dangerous: discomfort that is interfering with sleep, bleeding that persists but is not heavy, a stent string that has come loose or appears to have shortened, or a stent that you suspect has moved. And call if you realize the removal deadline is approaching with no appointment in place; that is a phone call worth making early.

Every decision about what these symptoms mean for you, and what to do about them, belongs to the clinicians who know your case. This list is here to make sure the call is made in time.

Frequently asked questions

How long after ureteroscopy can I fly if a stent was placed?

There is no published rule that sets a day. Most people resume ordinary activity within a day or two of ureteroscopy, and surgeons commonly want the anesthesia fully cleared, pain controlled, urine passing without fever and any early bleeding settled before a long flight. How the procedure went, your health history and the flight length all shift that window, so the surgeon who operated is the person to ask.

What are normal ureteral stent symptoms during a long flight?

Frequent and urgent urination, a burning sensation, a dull flank or lower abdominal ache that flares when you urinate, and pink or rust-colored urine are the common ones. They happen because the stent’s lower curl irritates the bladder lining and allows brief backflow toward the kidney. Sitting for hours and walking through airports can darken the urine temporarily. Heavy, clot-filled bleeding or fever are not normal.

Is flying with a kidney stent dangerous?

The stent itself poses no specific danger in the air; it cannot be dislodged by pressure changes and does not interfere with security screening. The real travel risks are those of any recent surgery: blood clots from immobility, dehydration making stent irritation worse, and infection presenting mid-journey. These are managed by walking regularly, drinking steadily, knowing the red-flag signs and travelling only once the surgeon agrees you are stable.

What should I do about stent removal after ureteroscopy abroad?

Arrange it before you leave. Ask the surgeon to write the removal deadline into the discharge letter, confirm whether a string is attached, and secure a named clinician or urology service at home with a booked appointment inside that window. Have the operation note sent to them in advance. A stent left beyond its intended time can encrust and become difficult to remove, which is the complication international patients are most exposed to.

Will airport security detect my ureteral stent?

No. A ureteral stent is a soft polymer tube positioned entirely inside the body and is not the kind of object security screening is designed to identify. You do not need a medical card or declaration for it. Carrying your discharge summary in hand luggage is still sensible, not for security but so that any clinician you meet en route can see what was done and when the stent is due out.

Should I drink less before flying to avoid bathroom trips with a stent?

The evidence points the other way. Concentrated urine stings a bladder already irritated by a stent, and dehydration increases the risk of travel-related blood clots on longer flights. Steady fluids, accepting water when offered and limiting alcohol and large amounts of coffee, generally make the journey more comfortable even though bathroom visits remain frequent. An aisle seat near a lavatory removes most of the stress of that trade-off.

How do I lower my blood clot risk on a long flight after surgery?

Movement is the main defense. The CDC suggests walking the aisle every two to three hours on flights over four hours and doing seated exercises in between, such as flexing the feet and circling the ankles, to keep the calf muscles pumping blood back toward the heart. Staying hydrated and avoiding sleeping cramped for the whole flight help too. Whether you need compression stockings or anything further depends on your history and is a question for your surgeon.

What if I develop a fever during the flight or after landing?

Treat it as urgent. A temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) or higher, or shaking chills, with a stent in place can signal a kidney infection that needs prompt assessment, because infection behind a partly obstructed kidney can worsen quickly. Tell the cabin crew if you are still in the air, and go to an emergency department on landing rather than waiting for a routine appointment. Bring your discharge summary and stent details with you.

Can I still pass stone fragments after ureteroscopy with a stent?

Yes. Laser treatment often leaves small fragments that pass over the following days to a couple of weeks, and the stent keeps the ureter open so most pass with little trouble. A fragment moving can cause a brief return of colicky pain. Pain that does not ease, pain with fever, or an inability to pass urine are reasons to seek care. Ask the surgeon before leaving whether all fragments were cleared and whether the stone will be analyzed.

Can I exercise or have sex while the stent is in?

Neither is medically prohibited after routine ureteroscopy in most cases, but both can be uncomfortable and may turn the urine pink for a day. Jostling irritates the bladder, so many people find vigorous exercise easier after stent removal. Anyone with a stent string needs to protect it from being pulled during either activity. If you are unsure what is sensible for your situation, your surgeon can give specific guidance.

References

• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases: Treatment for Kidney Stones
• NHS: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
• NHS: Kidney stones, Treatment

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.