Thyroid specialists are a rare breed!!!

[Snoddyoddbod]

Have been sitting here reading the posts and am coming to the conclusion that specialists in thyroid disorders are a very rare breed!!!

Is it because the ins and outs of treating this little butterfly gland are soooo complicated that doctors stay away from it !!!!

[humanbean]

I don't think so. I think the problem is that the majority of patients who have thyroid problems are women approaching the menopause, going through the menopause, or who have finished the menopause. Many of us are fat and depressed. We are, sadly, not sexy.

(I include myself in this group.)

The other issue is that doctors have been told that thyroid treatment is easy. And diabetes, in contrast, is a massive growth industry. For the newly-fledged doctor, specialising in thyroid would probably be career suicide.

[Gcart in reply to humanbean]

I know doctors take an easier route up the ladder to consultant status.

I have worked with them.

Certainly the endocrine system is the most complex and least chosen path.

.

[Hidden]

It could be that as soon as they realise that there are such utterly stupid "recommendations" in force which they cannot dispute, they turn their backs on a career that would give them no satisfaction at all.

Would you choose a medical career in which you knew you were forced to keep patients ill?

GP's themselves may deny that they "know nothing" and "come from Barcelona" about alternative ways of treatment, but every one of them will be meeting patients with the very same problems every week. They turn dumb when you start asking questions even when they know the truth - I know that first hand and have suffered from it to a great extent.

[SilverAvocado in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I think this is part of the problem. Doctors are very deskilled and they aren't paid to think, they're paid to parrot guidelines

[Angel_of_the_North]

I think that it's because it's not "sexy" and the money is in diabetes.