Reliability of Blood Test Results

[Ivysmum]

Hi. Hoping for some help. I’m 53 and have been a type one diabetic for 40 years. Over the last 18 months my weight has gone up from 9 1/2 st to over 11 but it’s not the menopause - been there, done that! Over the last six weeks or so I’ve been feeling increasingly unwell. I’m incredibly tired, my muscles ache, I feel sluggish and I’ve started getting a tingling in my thumbs. Last week I went to have a blood test to check my thyroid function and today I was told, over the phone by the receptionist, that my results are normal. I’m amazed by this and I’ve made an appointment with my doctor to discuss them. I don’t know whether they just tested my TSH levels or included the thyroid hormone levels and most importantly, bearing in mind I already have one auto-immune disease, whether they tested for antibodies in my blood. Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any advice for what to say to my doctor when I see him? Thank you.

[greygoose]

It would be a good idea to get a print-out of your results before you see the doctor, so you know what you're dealing with. Did he do all the right tests? Doubtful. What exactly were the ranges. Doctors tend to say normal even if the result is crawling along the bottom of the range, which would be too low. They're just not very good at interpreting blood test results, I'm afraid.

If you are in the UK it is your legal right to have a print-out of YOUR results. Just ring the receptionist and ask her to print them out, and you will collect them at her convenience.

[Ivysmum in reply to greygoose]

Thanks. My appointment isn’t until Thursday so I’ll try and get the results in the next couple of days. I’ve read some interesting articles on the Thyroid uk website about supposedly normal results and I’m sure something is amiss. Thanks again.

[greygoose in reply to Ivysmum]

You're welcome.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You are legally entitled to printed copies of your blood test results and ranges.

UK GP practices are supposed to offer online access for blood test results. Ring and ask if this is available and apply to do so if possible, if it is you may need "enhanced access" to see blood results.

In reality many GP surgeries do not have blood test results online yet

Alternatively ring receptionist and request printed copies of results. Allow couple of days and then go and pick up.

Important to see exactly what has been tested and equally important what hasn't been tested yet

Come back with new post once you get results

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low B12 can cause similar symptoms

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

As type one Diabetes is autoimmune you should be tested for autoimmune thyroid disease

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water . This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or all vitamins

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 special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random

[MMaud]

How have your blood glucose scores been Ivysmum.? As I'm sure you are aware, fluctuating or frequently high sugars can make us feel pretty rubbish.

Does your surgery not have patient access to your own records? I can view my full record, including consultant letters, back and forth, and copy emails from my GP to the Endos when investigating something on my behalf.

It's fab!

[Tina_Maria]

People with type 1 diabetes are more likely to develop other autoimmune diseases, especially ones which can affect the thyroid gland.

Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune disease that causes the body's immune system to turn on the thyroid gland, just as type 1 diabetes causes it to turn and attack the pancreas.

Like it was suggested, get a print out of your results with the reference ranges and post them here. Don't take their word that things are 'normal'. That usually means that the results are somewhere in the reference range, but by no means reflect how the person actually feels.