Endo referral! Who's best?

[Pollydolly]

Hi everyone. I'm still showing signs of over medication despite lowering dose of levothyroxine under the guidance of my GP over the last 3 months. These hyper symptoms are giving me a great deal of stress. She has now referred me to a choice of 6 endocrinology departments at my local hospitals. Has anybody had any experience of these? They are:-

1. endocrinology colchester general hospital

2. Endocrinology Halstead Hospital

3. Gen medicine incl. endocrinology Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford

4. Gen surgery thyroid Springfield hospital, Chelmsford

5. Thyroid general surgery, Colchester General Hospital

6. Thyroid-diabetology and endocrinology, Colchester Hospital

i don't have any names to research, I'm afraid!

I would appreciate any comments to help me in my choice. Thank you.

Endo recommendations via private messages please in line with posting guideline #24, thank you, Clutter.

[Hennerton]

Have you had checks for serum iron, ferritin, B12, Folate and Vit D? These all need to be high in range and low levels of iron gave me symptoms of being hyper, even when I was undermedicated. It is only if I keep taking iron supplements that I seem to be able to deal with a decent dose of medication. What were your thyroid blood tests before you reduced your dose and what are they now? These are often a better measure of whether you are hyper than how you feel. If you are not over range in T4 and T3, you are unlikely to be hyper, even if your TSH is too low.

[Pollydolly in reply to Hennerton]

Hi Hennerton. I've had the checks you mention (except for vit d) and am self medicating on iron, B12, B6, magnesium and selenium. At my last bloods on 4th August my ferritin was still on low side 45 (25-300).

Also, at this time my TSH was 0.08 (0.4-4.0) T4 was 24.8 (12-22)

My previous test on 9th June = TSH 0.05 (0.4-4.0) and T4 was 24.8 (12-22)

[Hennerton in reply to Pollydolly]

Have you ever had a test for free T3? It may be you are not converting T4 to T3 very well, especially since your ferritin is low. This would result in the kinds of figures you have of over range T4 and low TSH. This exact scenario happened to me and it was only when I insisted that free T3 should be tested that it was found to be under the reference range. My ferritin was later also discovered to be low. I went to see an endo who prescribed T3 and that problem was resolved. I also supplemented with iron and still do.

GPs seem completely unaware of the existence of T3 and the fact that it is the horomone needed by every cell in the body. I think mine looked it all up in his medical books after my blood test came back and realised why I had asked for the test, as he was much more helpful after that.

[Pollydolly in reply to Hennerton]

Never had T3 tested. Will ask Endo for this once I've decided on who I'm going to see... Thank you for your help.

[Clutter]

Pollydolly, email [e-mail] and ask whether any of the recommended endos work at any of those hospitals.

You can also check out the names of endos who work at those hospitals by checking out the endocrinology dept on the hospital websites.

[Pollydolly in reply to Clutter]

Thank you Clutter, just had a thought. Is Louise's list of 'private' endo's only?

[Clutter]

Pollydolly, I think the list includes private GPs, private & NHS endos.