Have you been diagnosed with another auto-immune disease since you discovered you had Coeliac Disease?

[FionaGFG]

If so how and what is it? What led you to get diagnosed - were any of your symptoms blamed on Coeliac Disease?

[Wendy-j]

i found i had an under active thyroid years before finding out i had coeliac, dr just kept putting my tiredness and weight gain down to that. It wasnt till my sister was diagnosed coeliac that i decided to be tested

[FionaGFG Administrator]

That's pretty common Wendy. Hopefully as more research shows there's a particularly strong link between CD and Thyroid problems there'll be more screening and testing. Yet sadly current NICE guidelines only recommend screening Thyroid Patients for Coeliac Disease, not the other way around. Which seems very odd to us as the onus is then pushed back onto the patient.

In my case I discovered I had CD and got my sister to get tested. She had it as well. Then after a year of gaining more and more weight and feeling exhausted despite CD her friendly GP referred her to see an endocrinologist. He dismissed her symptoms as 'life' and just being overweight - told her to eat salad and fruit and lose a few stones. Luckily she pressed him for tests (although she was close to tears) and lo and behold it showed she has Hashimotos Thyroid! So as always the moral is we often know our bodies better than the Drs do, be assertive and persistent.

In your case Wendy - how are you managing both conditions? As both can cause extreme tiredness. Are you on thyroxine and has getting the balance of that been hard?

[leslaki]

I have CD and Psoriatic Arthritis an auto-immune disease. There has not been a mention of a connection by any of the professionals but i am due to see a consultant next month so I will ask.

[HiveMind]

I have Churg-Strauss Syndrome (CSS) and also gluten sensitivity. The CSS came 1st (I think!). However, I have never been tested for gluten allergy. I was always feeling unwell so I put myself on a GF diet. I felt better within three days and have never looked back.

I still have the CSS to manage and also asthma & heart failure (by products of the CSS) but I feel so much better now I'm not poisoning myself on top of everything else.

My consultant told me that it is quite possible that I had the gluten sensitivity alongside the CSS as one autoimmune disease can sometimes beget others.

Fingers crossed I'm done "collecting" my share of them!