Just got an alert for this story. It is obvious that advising patients to put up with things is better than providing adequate doses of thyroid hormones.
In patients with subclinical hypothyroidism, clinicians need to set realistic expectations about symptom etiology and reversibility with treatment.
I don't want to read it as I want to be able to sleep tonight, instead of imagining send communications to the ignoramus. Many get better consultations on this site without being seen by 'medical' personnel who have no knowledge whatsover. Has she actually got a degree? In What?
Neither the paper that helvella linked to first, nor the paper it is based on considers the possibility that TSH may not be the gold standard measurement of thyroid function that endocrinologists assume it is. Until the medical profession can stop obsessing over the TSH and starts looking at Free T3, Free T4, and antibodies nothing is ever going to change.
The other thing that varies from person to person, that never seems to get taken into account, is how long thyroid output has been declining for, and how long TSH has been rising. If the thyroid fails quickly, then it seem reasonable to me that the damage done to the body and the brain is likely to be less severe than if the thyroid fails slowly. In the event of fast failure, if adequate treatment is started promptly, perhaps people recover faster? This is all hypothetical, so I could be writing rubbish.
In the mid 90s my TSH was a smidgen under 3 - already substantially over the average for someone with a healthy thyroid. In the mid 2000s it was a smidgen under 4. In 2009 it was found to be between 5 and 6, and since then it has been measured several times. It has never risen above 6. So, here we are, nearly 20 years after my TSH first showed itself to be higher than average (that I know of), and the NHS still wants me to put up with the effects and doesn't want me to be treated. How much damage has been done to me in those 20 years? And, in reality of course, I've had hypo symptoms for much longer than 20 years, so I suspect my thyroid hormone output was low from quite a young age. But the doctors never consider that.
In all my time here, I have only rarely heard anyone actually investigated at all, let alone properly, for remaining issues. Even those things that we consider should be routine like B12 and iron status seem often to be refused.
Full and proper investigation of alternative causes might be towards acceptable because then the end result of that could be to show it really is thyroid after all! And therefore fully justify increases or changes in medication. Sadly the time taken would leave the patient suffering and not properly treated for even longer.
Can't believe it. This woman not only has the attitude of a dinosaur but she has so much in common with that guy who believes in placebos. Where do they train these doctors?
I just don't believe it, they would do almost anything rather than admit some patients might be hypothyroid and treat them properly. Why are they happy to prescribe psychotherapy and antidepressants etc rather than try thyroxine? Makes my blood boil too.
it seems to me that this total pleb gained her degree from the university of idiots >>>> FAILED<<<< ....it would appear that I am some kind of depressed hypochondriac ..... where the hell do these people actually get off ? and more importantly how many others actually listen to them ? .......I just hope that the karma returns to them some day ---- they would then soon change their own opinions === it will return to them ===.....alan x
Why just for a couple of days? I'd go the whole hog and wish it on them for life! After all that's our sentence, isn't it? And it isn't helped by sheer stupid-pig-bloody-ignorance like that! #rantover >_<
Endocrinologists/doctors appear to have lost their 'human' touch with regard to detecting thyroid hormone disorders. They are not trained nowadays in clinical symptoms (of which there are many). Their guidelines state to diagnose only on the TSH result and one of our emminent (?) Endocrinologists stated last year at the American Thyroid Association's Conference that the TSH only is to be used in the diagnosing of a thyroid hormone dysfunction. He also followed this statement by saying if we are dissatisfied with levothyroxine even though the pain we feel "is real" it is a Somatization Disorder. So, in other words, we have a mental condition instead of hypothyroidism etc. The arrogance is truly appalling. Did manufacturers of a certain product contribute to the expenses of this conference?
Just had to make a small personal comment here........Three years ago my GP informed me that my hormones were Post Menopausal saying......I expect you already knew that though!!
I replied that having just celebrated my 70th birthday that weekend,I wasn't surprised.
When I looked up post menopausal hormones on the internet...there in front of me was a long list echoing thyroid symptoms.
So there you go ........that must be the end of it as far as our GPs are concerned.
I don't know what it is that so many doctors treating thyroid problems are so unsympathetic towards their patients. It is just the weirdest thing isn't it, they should know what the symptoms are etc yet it is as if an awful lot of them have been totally desensitised to their patients. I can't understand why some of them are willing to treat their patients for depression - well for anything really other than an underactive thyroid. they don't seem to appreciate there is nothing more depressing than being told their is noting wrong with your thyroid - it is very depressing but not the same sort of depressing as 'depression'.
Some of our symptoms are seen as so airy-fairy and, because they are not usually that visible, they just don't seem to be taken seriously. I don't think many doctors realise just how debilitating some of these symptoms are.
I'll second that BeansMummy.......In my late forties I visited my previous GP because I was none too well and wondered if it was due to approaching menopause. He said that he didn't know what I meant......your menopause is the day your periods stop!! ...............I couldn't begin to make a comment on that one !!
Oh my, defies belief really. I was actually guilty of blaming all my own symptoms on "my age" for quite a while, it was a revelation to discover that I had Hashimoto's. My problems only started then because it soon became apparent that this meant there would be no change whatsoever in how I was dealt with. I think I would have had better treatment if I had stuck to my self-diagnosed menopause problems!
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