OBJECTIVE: This study assesses the health state preferences for adverse effects of chemotherapy on healthy individuals. Time trade off (TTO), Standard Gamble (SG), and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores were compared between side-effects and across two time points. METHOD: A convenience sample of healthy pharmacy students self-administered a questionnaire of TTO, SG and VAS preferences for 12 different chemotherapy-related side-effects ranging from anorexia to severe nausea. Respondents completed the questionnaire on two separate occasions separated by 2 weeks. RESULTS: Ninety-three students completed at least one survey; 53 subjects completed both surveys (57%). The mean age of the sample was 25 years; 21% were male. While no missing values were seen in VAS questions, 23 missing responses were noted in the TTO and 72 in the SG. TTO had the highest test-retest correlation (ranging from 0.35 to 0.75) and VAS had the lowest correlation (ranging from 0.29 to 0.65). The order of the preference measures was consistent across nine of the twelve side-effects. The widest range of preferences occurred in the VAS, with the mean score for severe nausea rated at 0.27, and anorexia at 0.82. The TTO and SG ranges were narrower than the VAS (0.55 to 0.90, and 0.80 to 0.95, respectively). Consistent with other studies, the lowest median score for all three preference measures was severe nausea. CONCLUSION: Similar scores were obtained from the three methods to estimate preferences for cancer related health states, although the narrowness of the TTO/SG distributions may limit the ability to distinguish between the 12 side-effects. The methods were not equivalent in ease of administration as shown by the number of missing items in the TTO/SG. Additional comparisons across these three methods and different populations would assist in determining the association between side effects and preferences.