Why are they so fixated on TSH?

Why do most g.p.'s have such limited knowledge of thyroid issues, going by TSH levels rather than how the person actually FEELS? I find this somewhat bewildering, and have spent the best part of nearly 3 years, TRYING to get through to g.p's and Endo, that I have NEVER been this fat in my life, I don't enjoy being judged for being this fat, (obviously I eat too much, and exercise too little, SOUND FAMILIAR?) and I certainly don't like the expectation to just 'do as you're told' and continue to not only keep gaining weight, but the ever infuriating conversations that you may just as well have with a BRICK WALL..

My continued suffering is no joke, neither is it for all the other's out there who find themselves in similar positions..So why are we being effectively 'ignored'?

I can tell you all here and now, had I known then (when I had the radio-iodine) what I know now, I would not have gone ANYWHERE NEAR, because THIS is like a living HELL, made worse by no-one LISTENING or CARING enough to look beyond the beloved Levothyroxine and the damned TSH..

To sum up, this is MY OWN experience of being on a medication that is doing absolutely NOTHING to help me, and of being told repeatedly to cut down on food and exercise more..(The truth is, I barely eat anything, because I can't, and it's apparently not that serious if you find you can't go to the loo for ten days or more) despite being in an incredible amount of pain..

I am determined enough to NOT want to give up, and battle my through the ignorance and constant judgements, I'm just sick of being ill, and having nowhere to turn to..

Like I said earlier, this is MY OWN experience, and I hope not too many of you will be able to 'relate' but it is at least comforting to know that if you are having a tough time, then at least you know you're not alone..

Keep fighting..

Best wishes

M

[greygoose]

I think that's the experience of most of us. It's certainly mine.

Doctors seem to be a spectacularly unimaginative lot, incapable of thinking out of the box. And what they learn in med school is gospel! They're not interesting in questioning it or learning more (I have to say that I'm grossly generalising, here, but I can't keep saying there are exceptions, even though there often are.)

And, what they learn in med school is dictated by Big Pharma. Because BP holds the purse strings. And it's not in BP's interest to have us well. They are making a fortune out of 'treating' our symptoms with things like statins, antidepressants, beta blockers and PPIs, to name just four. If we had knowledgeable doctors that believed us, and made us well, we wouldn't need all those drugs, and BP would lose money. You have to remember that BP does not create cures, it creates customers - and we are their biggest source!

So, it's not the doctors fault that they are badly educated, and taught lies. The TSH test and levo are, after all, made and sold by BP. And they are also taught in med school that they are superior beings, and patients are all liars and idiots. So...

But what is their fault is that the don't look beyond all that, and realise that what they were taught in med school isn't working. More and more people are becoming sick, and the drugs aren't helping - let alone curing! That they can just accept that, and watch people suffering, and doing nothing about it, that is their fault. That they don't feel the need to keep up with the latest research is their fault, too. But, it's 90% down to their education. And until Big Pharma has been toppled, nothing is going to change.

[Jazzw]

I relate. Oh, how I relate.

Obesity is a symptom, not a cause.

[Ruthi]

There are other very good reasons why doctors are fixated on the numbers. In the good old days they told us what was good for us, and we didn't question it. We most certainly did not sue them, even if they nearly killed us. The beauty of numbers, for doctors, is that they are absolute. If they treat us according to the numbers, no matter how much we suffer, they cannot be blamed for getting it wrong.

Now we know that the numbers are flawed. Its a statistical construct to deem 95% of a test group healthy. But there is something else going on. Very few men turn up at the doctor's surgery, complaining of fatigue, and turn out to have an elevated TSH but still within range. Men (aka 'proper patients') tend to have sky high TSH's on diagnosis. Ergo, women just make a fuss.

I don't think doctors are deliberately uncaring, or even, in the majority of cases lazy. But they are very, very afraid of being sued, or hauled over the coals by the BMA (medical mafia). I have doctor friends, and every doctor knows another whose career has been ruined by complaints or the BMA witch hunt. They are also taught that patients are stupid, lazy, and self-destructive. So it is much easier to believe that we are lying/misguided than that the medicine they feel they absolutely must practise is causing illness and distress.