So just had annual thyroid bloods done at GP surgery. When I got the results it was TSH only. Previously it was T4 and TSH. GP Manager queried it for me; response from GP was that if patient is stable on meds and TSH is within range then only TSH is tested! I mean what is the point of even bothering? My TSH was suppressed last time and they wanted to reduce meds. We agreed to drop by 25mcg. This time my TSH is 1.8 range (0.3-5)
I guess I will now have to get ALL my bloods done privately; is this just another sign of a reduction in NHS services? 🙄
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linkit
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Yes I’ve checked the NICE guidelines and they confirm what’s happening. It’s disgraceful. No one seems to care about thyroid problems despite them being a metabolic problem that affects your whole body and results in uninformed patients going to GP for lots of things that crop up as a result of it 😢 it feels like a backward step 😏 an easy target for cutting costs? Well I’m retired so I will have to save up for an annual blood test now but at least I will get more than just TSH & T4 I guess 😞 I’m just so thankful I found this site with all its helpful information and one or two others that’s offer some suggestions that might work. Working on getting your gut happy is definitely the way forward, 😁
That’s so very true, doctors seem so very uninformed about thyroid issues actually causing a huge array of body wide problems & also their link with other illnesses, it seems easy to dismiss us as neurotic.
I think it’s not just thyroids too, it’s most chronic illnesses, they seem to be unable to manage.
I’ve recently found out that they didn’t follow nice guidelines in regards to my pernicious anaemia & actually seemed completely unaware there were different guidelines within diagnosis!
it’s all just a total minefield trying to navigate doctors with so little understanding of these life long conditions.
I feel that you’re made to feel like you’re causing problems but all you’d like to do is live your life with minimal suffering!
I’ve lost about 10 of the last 15 years due to these illnesses, I’m 35 and coming to terms with the fact I probably won’t be able to have a family because of it all.
I wish Doctors could understand we’re not being ill for fun, we’re missing out on so much & a little understanding & proper diagnostic tools would go a long way!
I guess I will now have to get ALL my bloods done privately; is this just another sign of a reduction in NHS services?
You may have hit the nail on the head there.
I am in Wales, NHS Wales does some things differently from NHS England. My TSH is always suppressed and for a long time now my thyroid tests have always included TSH, FT4 and FT3 - whether that may change in the future is anyone's guess.
Recently there was news of NHS approved tests that patients could pay to have done by Monitor My Health which is an NHS laboratory
Award-winning state-of-the-art NHS clinical laboratory launches quality ‘do-it-yourself’ home blood testing service
A new regulated NHS-backed home blood testing service designed to help people take more control over their own health and deliver safe and precise test results across a range of key health markers has been launched.
Monitor My Health is a fully regulated, not-for-profit venture that offers more choice to people keen to track their own health and provides a high-quality alternative to existing unregulated and profit-making home blood testing services available online.
Competitively priced with tests from £24 and no subscription necessary, the national service, available to UK-based residents at monitormyhealth.org.uk, enables people to take a small pin-prick sample of blood from their finger at home using a simple kit and return their sample to the laboratory by pre-paid post. People can choose from individual tests for cholesterol, diabetes, thyroid activity, vitamin D and combination tests, heart health and full screen.
Now these test kits are the same as Medichecks, Blue Horizon, etc, but we hear many times that doctors refuse to accept the results of these private tests. Presumably because Monitor My Health is "NHS backed" then if we test with them and take the results to our GP they will be acceptable.
I am a cynical old crow (thanks mainly to the NHS) but I believe this could very well be the start of minimal investigation/testing by the NHS and passing the cost on to the patient.
Thanks for posting the link and info for the blood tests. Cheaper than Medicheck other than when in order and as you say it's nhs so should be accepted.
SeasideSusie, If monitormyhealth went the extra step to offer a sensibly priced phlebotomy option at your local surgery/hospital, I just might be tempted to try out the only thyroid test they offer. As it is, fingerprick kit for TSH, FT4 and FT3 can be obtained from Medichecks for the same price on special offer days. So monitormyhealth aren't getting any business from me
Same here! I use Medichecks and buy when on special offer when I know I'll use it within 6 months. It's purely for personal use though, even though my GP's test includes all 3, I do tweak to get a result they'll be happy with but still have to argue that the FT4/FT3 results are more important than suppressed TSH.
Is the NHS trying to reduce their population as maybe we're costing the NHS too much money i.e. with blood tests and then prescriptions?
If we were diagnosed properly, given adequate thryoid hormone replacements so that TSH is 1 or lower (not within range as the majority of professionals seem to imagine) the patients would feel well again.
Tell surgery you are completely uninterested in a TSH being within the normal range as, due to you already being diagnosed as hypothyroid, you need a TSH of 1 or below - you certainly don't want a TSH to be within range..
Is the NHS trying to reduce their population as maybe we're costing the NHS too much money i.e. with blood tests and then prescriptions?
I don't think this is the main reason for our problems. I doubt if someone, either in government or the NHS sat down in a meeting and said "We must shrink the population, how are we going to kill people off without the population in general realising what we are doing?" It might have happened. But somehow I doubt it. If it did happen it will have been written in a different way than I have suggested.
What I think has happened is that the government and the NHS have decided that people must be persuaded they have gone soft and they must be refused physical treatment. Instead people must be offered mental health treatment with CBT and exercise (because their problems are all in their heads). And to make it cheaper it will be done in group sessions and/or using online CBT which is cheap as chips. Therapists will get extremely limited training - perhaps a day or two - and that is all that is required to go through questionnaires.
The government and the NHS want to shrink the size of the patient population because the NHS is probably not a good investment as it stands - the patient population is high in numbers, and the expectations of the population in general are high... They want us to be more like Americans... Willing to spend a huge proportion of our incomes on our health. And if we can't afford that then we just don't get treated, and so we live in chronic pain, with chronic illness, until we die. This is the way to make profits. People don't matter.
One warning sign for potential investors is that some contracts between private healthcare companies and the NHS have collapsed, because the companies pulled out of the contract. And they pulled out because they couldn't make money.
So the NHS and the government are trying to make the NHS a better proposition for future profit. I don't understand why so many people seem to be completely oblivious to this. There are loads of people who still think the NHS is great. But it has slipped a long, long way from its roots where treatment was supposed to be free at the point of delivery, for everything. And this slipping from it roots has been carefully stage-managed for many, many years - mostly since about the 80s, I would say. I do feel that the final end of the NHS is within sight in the next year or two. But while there are private companies that are allowed to use the NHS logo, people will still think there is an NHS that is for the benefit of the public, rather than private investors. It may take healthy people a long time to realise it is gone.
Linkit, This is nothing new in my experience. FT4 has never been tested for me when TSH is in range, except at the very beginning of treatment when I was getting 6 weekly dose titration tests. But that is many years ago now.
It's possible that there has in the past, been differences in testing arrangements between different UK locations of course ( i.e. a postcode lottery).
Maybe it's the case that you've previously been lucky but now every lab - at least in England - is being brought into line.
I dont think there is a plan as such. I think they just dont care. They dont see the daily struggle, the tears, the trying to do your best while all you want to do is sleep.
You are a cost centre. They dont want that. Please go away and suffer all by yourself quietly. Dont make a fuss or we will slap a mental health diagnosis on you.
So what if your bloods dont conform? So what if the Thyroxine is not working? You are a trouble maker. You want to feel well? Well, we cannot make a profit on that!
It has been and still is very difficult for me to get my head around the fact that THEY DONT CARE. But once you realise that, it does give you a certain power to fight back.
Get your results. Get knowledge of what it means. Then sort it out for yourself by whatever means you can. I think my GP has taken to hanging garlic up when I have an appointment!
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no t4 just tsh. 
Help raised Armour dose was doing well now have insomnia!(sorry for long post)
Binned all my Levo - NDT only now but T4 still low
Now off all meds in preparation for TRH Test.
Thyroid & cytomel, not feeling well at all
T3 and T4. Working well. Now told the T.3 will not be prescribed. 
