How are your nuisance symptoms?: Just got an... - Thyroid UK

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How are your nuisance symptoms?

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK
26 Replies

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.

hcplive.com/articles/Hypoth...

I think that overheating must be a thyroid symptom - my blood regularly boils these days.

Rod

PubMed link:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/251...

and earlier this year - only first page viewable:

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

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helvella profile image
helvella
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26 Replies
RedApple profile image
RedAppleAdministrator

Pass the scalpel please... let's see how well she copes with 'nuisance symptoms' on inadequate or inappropriate thyroid medications! :-|| :@ >:( ;o

Clutter profile image
Clutter

"Get on with it and get over yourself" appears to be the message :x

She's the type of doctor who will diagnose perimenopause for anyone between 15-100 including male patients.

It's your BS radar that making your blood boil, Rod.

humanbean profile image
humanbean

I think this is the article that you are looking for : journals.lww.com/co-endocri...

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to humanbean

Thank you - I only got to the paywall pages! :-)

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

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?

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to shaws

Shaws, a masters in fobbing off patients and getting them out of her clinic at the speed of light.

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to Clutter

It is nothing short of scandelous, especially if we are look for help.

crimple profile image
crimple

Couldn't agree with you more about blood boiling. What a sanctimonious..........

humanbean profile image
humanbean

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.

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to humanbean

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.

Fruitandnutcase profile image
Fruitandnutcase

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.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to Fruitandnutcase

Follow the money, FandN, follow the money...

alangardner profile image
alangardner

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

alangardner profile image
alangardner in reply to alangardner

forgot to say that I DONT suffer from thyroid problems [ my lady does ] .......and I still appear to be a hypochondriac .....alan

Mauds profile image
Mauds in reply to alangardner

Alan I'd Love for those docs and endos to get thyroid problems just to live in our shoes for a couple of days would do them the world of good.

Zephyrbear profile image
Zephyrbear in reply to Mauds

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 >_<

Mauds profile image
Mauds in reply to Zephyrbear

You're right just wish they would listen to us all

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

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?

nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/enc...

in reply to shaws

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.

Thank goodness for Thyroid UK xx

Fruitandnutcase profile image
Fruitandnutcase in reply to shaws

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'.

BeansMummy profile image
BeansMummy

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.

in reply to BeansMummy

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 !!

BeansMummy profile image
BeansMummy in reply to

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!

greygoose profile image
greygoose

Is it any Wonder that so many of us self-treat when this is all the medical community can offer? No. It isn't!

You're right Greygoose........thank goodness I finally found the confidence to do so.

Keep well.

lucindajethol profile image
lucindajethol

What a load of twaddle. I can almost hear the people on this forum jumping up and down with rage.

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