WhyIsMyBody

Search a symptom and the rarest, most frightening explanation usually ranks near the top. People leave more anxious than they arrived, and the one thing they actually needed, whether to see a doctor today, is buried somewhere below the fold.

Every answer follows the same three part shape, which is the part that took longest to get right. First, what is probably happening, in two or three plain sentences. Second, what you can do about it right now. Third, the specific red flags that mean you should see a doctor.

A single severity read sits at the top of every answer, so the page is useful before you have read a word of it. Green means probably fine, amber means keep an eye on it, red means see a doctor.

• Common symptoms are pre written and reviewed for accuracy rather than generated on request
• Anything not yet covered is generated live in the same three part format, then cached so the next visitor gets it instantly
• Coverage spans adult, child, and pregnancy contexts
• Common pet symptoms are covered too, which turned out to be a large share of real traffic