Between November 2024 and January 2025, I visited liver surgeons at 4 different hospitals in 4 different states and got 3 different opinions on what was the correct next step for my cancer treatment.

I don’t regret it.

I broke my leg at the edge of the Fibula bone. 4 Orthopedic specialists gave me 3.5 different opinions with different and conflicting recommendations for treatment.

So, unless the first two opinions are completely identical - yeah, definitely get the third. Better to go for people with slightly different specializations if relevant.

I've had a couple of second opinions for far less serious stuff in recent years. In both cases the original doctors suggested major surgery pre-emptively, even though they were very different types of thing.

In the first case, I decided to talk to an expert in the particular area who then ordered different tests. These indicated the issue had actually gone away completely, and I avoided surgery as a result of those.

In the other, a grade 2 ACL tear, it was less clear-cut, but I felt like the explanations given by the second doctor as to why he'd recommend against surgery were clearer and made more sense to me.

I'm glad I got both second opinions and the first case in particular, made me much more likely to get second opinions in future as well as more confident about doing so.

Yes you get a 3rd, 4th, 5th opinion! Until you understand what the consensus seems to be. This is serious stuff.