Endocrinologist referral

[Orla9298]

My GP has finally agreed to send me to an endocrinologist (don’t feel good thyroid-wise despite TSH and T4 being ok - freezing legs and feet, dead arms in the morning, carpal tunnel, stiff locking joints resulting in cortisone injection, reduced sensation to 2 fingers, feel exhausted and takes me about 2 hours to wake up properly, hard stools resulting in fissures needing Botox) Plus battling with fertility and just had a miscarriage and have low estrogen, and am supplementing with DHEA for my next 3 rounds of IVF.

I’m going to use my private healthcare we have through my husbands job and they have given me 3 consultants to choose from, and said if I want to use someone outside of the three I have to ring and check with them first.

I was wondering if I post the details of the consultants I’ve been offered, can anyone advise who I might be best off seeing? They all mention diabetes high up in their expertise, touch on thyroid, but some list other things that might be applicable to me taking into account infertility. I’m in Liverpool.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Check if any are on this list

Email Louise at a Thyroid UK for list of recommended thyroid specialists [e-mail]

[Orla9298 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you, I have emailed.

I looked back over previous results and seems that even on 200mg Levo with my TSH down at 0.2 and T4 at 30 my T3 was at the bottom end of the range at 4. Since then they have reduced me to 175 Levo so I’m suspicious my T3 may be even lower, would that be a possibility? My TPO antibodies at that time were 90 but have since come down to around 40 since being gluten free (steady decrease from 90 to 60 to 46 to 40 Over the 4 last tests). T3 has never been repeated since the above.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Orla9298]

For full evaluation you need TSH, FT4, FT3, TT4, TPO and TG antibodies, plus vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 tested

GP very unlikely to test FT3

If you can't get full thyroid and vitamin testing from GP

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have money off offers.

All thyroid tests should be done as early as possible in morning and fasting and don't take Levo in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take straight after. This gives highest TSH and most consistent results

[Orla9298 in reply to SlowDragon]

The above results were done via medichecks which is the only time my T3 was tested, and I did the full thyroid option including rT3, I’ll post results in a bit when I can get to work and look them up.

Thanks!

[Anthea55]

I wonder if any of your symptoms of cold extremities might be due to Raynaud's phenomenon. See this from nhs.uk

nhs.uk/conditions/raynauds/

It might be worth asking your doctor or endo about that.

Just a thought.

[Orla9298 in reply to Anthea55]

I don’t suffer from this no, never any white fingers etc, no burning. My husband has this so I’m familiar with it x

[Clutter]

Orla9298,

My condolences on your miscarriage.

You can post the names of the endocrinologists your health insurer has suggested and ask for feedback via private messages.

You were overmedicated on 200mcg to have FT4 30 but I think it is unlikely to have caused your miscarriage. There are no recommended levels of FT3 during pregnancy because pregnancy can cause considerable fluctuations.