Medichecks campaign: "Don't shh me"

[Cherylclaire]

Medichecks want to raise awareness of women having their health concerns ignored. They have found in a survey that 93% of their female customers reported feeling dismissed by the medical profession. The campaign for International Women's Day this year includes asking for real stories from women facing problems getting listened to about their medical issues ....

marketing @ medichecks.com

I was contacted by e-mail from their mailing list because I once ordered a full thyroid set of tests (testing included 2 autoimmune thyroid conditions)- and these are tests which are not widely available via the NHS.

I thought I'd pass this information on in case anyone here would like to participate.

Any women here feeling shushed lately ?

[Jillymo]

There are far two many of us both male and female not being taken seriously or fobbed off with the FND label or similar. What do we have to do to be heard shout from the roof tops ? I two have resorted to using Medichecks for thyroid and B12.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support in reply to Jillymo]

I really hope that Medichecks get a reply from you, Jillymo !

Whether anything actually comes of it or not, you'll certainly be a medical eye-opener for them. Who knows ?

[Dislancas69 in reply to Jillymo]

I ve now gone down the medicheck route …this is a hard fight

[Dislancas69 in reply to Jillymo]

I’m hoping it’s normal as today I’m supposed to be writing a letter of complaint to my doctors

…but I’m putting it off because ( im tired and stressed) I will get it done over the weekend

but today I’d rather never see or think about another doctor

today I feel I’m letting myself down

Tomorrow I will feel positive …baby steps I’m running before I can walk

[Wheat]

hello, I ve received the email from them.

I afraid it is a Marketing ploy to make more money under the guise of caring for womens health. After all it would not suit them financially to have to loose us to the NHS. It is mainly about their tests.

I could wish the nhs and gps would actually listen to such reports, but I don't believe it's going to happen anytime soon and sadly not from Medichecks. Sorry. x

[Dislancas69 in reply to Wheat]

definitely …i went looking thinking may be interesting idea but …marketing …selling more tests…although so far so good for my medicheck blood test

[Cherylclaire Forum Support in reply to Wheat]

No I get you - I guess the clue is having "marketing" as the contact title !

Why this forum so important - no-one here stands to gain anything; there is no angle, no ulterior motive. Just honesty, the occasional dispute, but mainly kindness. We've all been through so much.

Got overexcited by the prospect of us getting airspace !

[FlipperTD]

Scientist, not medic...

Finding that 93% of the folks who use your service because they're dissatisfied with their GP sounds a bit like standing outside a football stadium and asking the folks going in if they like football!

It's a marketing ploy but there's no doubt whatsoever if everyone was happy with their service from the GP, there wouldn't be much demand for the service.

It would be interesting to see what it does to turnover!

[helvella in reply to FlipperTD]

The pie-seller said he loves football - he never sees any of the game but he sells so many pies...

NHS testing of many things is cut back to the minium they can get away with.

For example, TSH-only for thyroid. Yet just yesterday there was a significant UK paper which use TSH and FT4 to identify widespread issues. Something that would obviously be impossible with TSH-only testing.

And ferritin-only for iron.

And serum B12-only for B12.

A mixed story about Medichecks. At one point, their ferritin ranges made absolutely no sense whatsoever. To begin with they seemed to more or less say that they were what they were. But, after a number of complaints, they did go out and re-assess the ranges they use and resolve the most egregious issues.

But many NHS practitioners refuse to accept private tests so have to re-run tests when a patient highlights an issue revealed by a private test. Not sure how much any of this saves in the longer term.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support in reply to FlipperTD]

I am probably one of the few people here who felt that their GP did do everything she could for me and sent me on to every consultant and for every test, so that she could find out what was going on and rule out all else, all the other possibles.

(Yes - even monitoring both TSH and FT4 , helvella !)

I wanted the Medicheck autoimmune thyroid tests as well, just because two of my sisters have Grave's disease. Marz - thanks for your help with results. Luckily, I did not have thyroid problems.

[helvella in reply to Cherylclaire]

Someone I know has positive Thyroglobulin but negative Thyroid Peroxidase antibodies.

TG rarely tested by NHS labs.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support in reply to helvella]

Medichecks did both anti-TPO and anti-TG as part of testing. This test was the only time I have had to get a private test - because of lack of an NHS access route.

I expect this to have changed since then, sadly.

[tomdickharry]

Don't forget men get the same treatment.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support in reply to tomdickharry]

It was Medichecks who identified a concern regarding women's treatment. Perhaps women make up a larger percentage of their customers (?)

My cynical voice would say that B12 deficiency might be taken more seriously by the medical profession if it was not viewed largely as a post-menopausal women's issue . However, I also believe that some post-menopausal women's husbands have gradually come to the same conclusion !

And of course, some men do get the same treatment. Your GP and how s/he sees you do come into play here. I was very lucky in that my GP was supportive - but only after she'd offered me antidepressants three times !

Why depression is seen by GPs as the default position for women of a certain age, I'm really not sure. But I'd be willing to bet this particular problem stems from a gender-biased assumption.