Petition for new TSH levels on guidelines?

[Tiredhorses]

Just recently joint this forum. I am battling with stupid GP who doesn't want to recognise hypothyroid diagnosis and give Levothyroxine.

Reading so many posts about incompetent GPs , why there is no petition signed and send to British Thyroid organisation to lower TSH levels, as waiting till you reach 10 is absurd.

[Hillwoman]

These deficiencies in diagnosis and treatment have been the subject of petitions and campaigns for a long time now. You could try using the search box on this forum for more info. For up to the minute campaign news, the ITT group on Facebook is very useful.

[Hillwoman in reply to Hillwoman]

Also try entering 'NICE guidelines' in the searchbox on the forum for lots of recent discussion about the draft guidelines.

[TSH110 in reply to Hillwoman]

I read that as daft guidelines!

[vocalEK in reply to TSH110]

LOL. Me too. I swear it said "daft guidelines."

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Guidelines recommend that if a patient has raised Thyroid antibodies and raised TSH and symptoms, Levothyroxine could be trialled

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

Have you had both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested?

Vitamin D, folate, B12 and ferritin also need retesting regularly on Levothyroxine

[MaisieGray]

Over the years there have been any number of thyroid petitions of one sort or another, and all have been badly supported - despite the numbers of people diagnosed with thyroid hypothyroidism. The last one garnered only 50,000 signatures even though it ran for over a year; others haven't even received that many. But in any case, pending the implementation of the latest draft NICE guidelines released recently, the current NICE Clinical Knowledge Summary suggests the initiation of treatment where the TSH is between 4 and 10 mU/L and FT4 is within the normal range for patients with symptoms suggestive of hypothyroidism. So GPs aren't obligated to wait for the TSH to rise beyond 10 if they feel a trial of Levo is warranted.

[magsyh]

Unfortunately there are far too many people out there not getting the treatment they require. I live in the northern isles of Scotland and the health up here is disgraceful due to lack of vit d. We have the highest incidence of ms in the world. Low thyroid is very common too but unfortunately the population no matter where they are trust their doc when they use the word normal. Most folk won't listen they just carry on taking the medication for all the associated health problems when all they need is their thyroid looking at! So frustrating. It's better education for doctors is what we need but that is not likely to happen.