Finally got an appointment with a specialist but he's a diabetes specialist..

[Hattie87]

Does this matter? Will he know what he's talking about or should I try to find someone else?

Thank you

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Hattie

Chances are he wont know much about thyroid and you will be no better off. Plenty of posts on here telling us how endos don't understand about antibodies, or T3, or why patients' levels fluctuate, blaming them for non compliance with their meds, telling them they have mental health problems, anxiety, their symptoms are nothing to do with thyroid. The list is endless, all this because they don't know enough about thyroid but wont admit it.

Best thing to do is send for the list of thyroid friendly endos from Dionne at

[e-mail]

then see who you can get to. Ask on the forum for feedback by private message and if any seem as though they might be helpful then ask your GP to refer you to one of those instead.

[Hattie87 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you so much, I'll try to book an appointment with someone else and send the admin an email

[Scazzoh]

Are you going privately? If so , I wouldn't bother to see an Endo, diabetes or thyroid. I believe that Functional Medicine, which looks at the whole person from a health, rather than an illness point of view, is more beneficial for us who have thyroid problems, because they affect all parts of our bodies and minds and I don't think standard medical training teaches this. If you want more information, The Institute for Functional Medicine has some good information: here is the link:

ifm.org/

You can find a practitioner, but they tend to be expensive, which is why I asked whether you are going privately. You wouldn't get a referral to a Functional Practitioner on the NHS as far as I know.

[Hattie87 in reply to Scazzoh]

No I wasn't going private as I can't afford it at the moment, something I'll keep in mind though, thank you!

[Judithdalston]

From experience an Endo with diabetes specialism will look for anything else to 'cure' rather than thyroid problems. My blood tests which obviously showed very poor T4 to T3 conversion suggested test from sleep apnoea and addition of metformin.

[Hattie87 in reply to Judithdalston]

Thanks for this, I'll look into changing it for sure then!

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Can see from previous posts you have Hashimoto's.

Have you improved your low vitamin D

What are current levels of B12, folate and ferritin too

Low vitamin levels can lower TSH, see you recently had Levo dose reduced despite already having low FT3

Are you on strictly gluten free diet? Or tried it?

According to Izabella Wentz the Thyroid Pharmacist approx 5% with Hashimoto's are coeliac, but over 80% find gluten free diet helps significantly. Either due to direct gluten intolerance (no test available) or due to leaky gut and gluten causing molecular mimicry (see Amy Myers link)

Changing to a strictly gluten free diet may help reduce symptoms, help gut heal and slowly lower TPO antibodies

Ideally ask GP for coeliac blood test first

amymyersmd.com/2017/02/3-im...

chriskresser.com/the-gluten...

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

scdlifestyle.com/2014/08/th...

drknews.com/changing-your-d...

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

Dr Toft, past president of the British Thyroid Association and leading endocrinologist, states in Pulse Magazine,

"The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range - 0.2-0.5mU/l.

In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l.

Most patients will feel well in that circumstance. But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l.

This 'exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism' is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l)."

You can obtain a copy of the articles from Thyroid UK email print it and highlight question 6 to show your doctor

 please email Dionne at

[e-mail]

Also request list of recommended thyroid specialists, some are T3 friendly

Professor Toft recent article saying, T3 may be necessary for many otherwise we need high FT4 and suppressed TSH in order to have high enough FT3

rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...

[Hattie87 in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi,

Thank you for this, yes since I read about it a few weeks ago I've not eaten any gluten and will carry on, when do you think I'll see the effects of this? I wasn't sure if I had hashimotos, can you tell from the tests?

My B12 is 1004 (range 180 - 999)

Ferritin is 95 (range 13.00 - 150.00)

Folate is >20.00 (no range)

Do they look ok to you?

Yes I was worried about my T3 going down too, I went to the doctors yesterday and he said UK don't think the T3 matters.

Thanks

[Scazzoh in reply to Hattie87]

'The UK don't think T3 matters?' What kind of an idiot is this? If you don't have enough T3 you will never feel well.

[Hattie87 in reply to Scazzoh]

I thought that too but he didn't seem to think it was a problem. He made out that I got this wrong information (needing T3) from a random website and he knows best.

[Scazzoh in reply to Hattie87]

Q: What's the difference between God and a doctor?

A: God doesn't think he's a doctor.