Hi I'm a newbie. I'm feeling very confused at the moment with conflicting diagnoses. About three years ago I had a Thyroglossal cyst removed and blood tests revealed that I had antibodies for Underactive Thyriod. I saw an Endo who recommended me taking vitD and to have my bloods taken by gp every six months but he did not give me any medication. I have also seen a Rhumatologist who diagnosed fibromyalgia and another who I am seeing currently who has run Thyroid blood tests and nerve conduction tests for carpal tunnel all have in his opinion been normal. He is diagnosing
Chronic fatigue Syndrome. My symptoms are fatigue weight gain aching and stiff legs and arms throbbing pains muscle cramps disturbed sleep low libido and IBS headaches stiff joints sugar cravings. Sorry I don't have a print out of the results. I am due to see the Rhumatologist on 1st December to discuss the results so I shall ask for a copy. He said in his letter that he will probably discharge me back to the care of my GP. The question I have is do you think I may have Hashimotos and should I have been given medication when the antibodies were first discovered three years ago? What do I do now? Thank you.
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Paddington17
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If your TPO antibodies are high, then yes, you do have Hashi's. But, it depends what your levels of TSH, FT4 and FT3 were, whether or not you should be medicated, and you can't just guess at those, you need copies of your labs.
Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s & Rhuematoid issues are all AUTO IMMUNE diseases, you need to give up GLUTEN (a protein in WHEAT, BARLEY & RYE). The autoimmune system is controlled by the gut. GP’s won’t tell you this stuff, you have to do your own research.
Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia are not autoimmune diseases. They do not have antibodies. If something is autoimmune, there is a specific antibody for that disease that can be tested for. There are no blood tests for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia.
Ok, I’m no medic but they are all inflammatory conditions that often improve when certain aggregators ( such as gluten) are removed from the diet. Apologies for the confusion.
Greygoose, please forgive me if I appear to be argumentative but .......... I read a book called Living Well With Autoimmune Disease by Mary J Shoman and there is a list of “all the conditions identified by AARDA (American Autoimmune Diseases Association) as autoimmune related” and this list includes Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and Fibromyalgia.
Autoimmune RELATED is not the same as being autoimmune. An autoimmune disease is diagnosed by testing the antibodies. There are no known antibodies for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia.. Further more, they are syndromes, not diseases.
If it is a while since you have a test for thyroid hormones ask for a new one and tell GP you've taken advice from the NHS Choices for help/advice for dysfunctions of the thyroid gland - Thyroiduk.org.uk.
He, or lab may not do all as they believe TSH and T4 is sufficient for diagnosis. Not so - you need to have the blood test as early as possible, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose and test and take it afterwards.
Request: TSH, T4, T3, Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies. B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate. The vits/minerals have to be optimal in order for thyroid hormones to work effectively.
Always get a print-out of the results with the ranges. Ranges are important as labs differ and it makes it easier to comment.
Post them on a new question for answers.
We have two recommended labs which will do all of the thyroid hormone ones or the ones GP cannot. The same procedure should be followed i.e. fasting etc. The GP should definitely test vits/minerals,
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