Had a phone consultation yesterday as suffering from menopausal symptoms that have now reached a point of being totally disruptive. Call was 45 minutes late despite being first appointment of day so was already on edge. Anyway described my symptoms and his response was I think we need to see if you have a thyroid problem first. Excuse me but I was diagnosed with auto immune hypothyroidism 25 plus years ago and have been on levothyroxine since. Didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. So going forward mid morning blood test next week because they can’t do early morning tests. Which I know will be followed by the usual discussion that TSH too low, me refusing to lower dose and then GP saying the menopause and associated symptoms will pass.
Not a question, just needed to vent.
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SarahJLD
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Change your blood test appointment to whatever they can offer for the earliest appointment for blood draw. It is a fasting test.
Stick to your guns as a later appointment will give a different result. i.e. TSH is highest early a.m. and drops throughout the day. So, even if we make an appointment weeks ahead that will be to our benefit and may prevent a reduction in dose and could well get you an increase.
Allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose of levo and test. Don't take thyroid hormones before blood test, take afterwards. It should be a fasting test (you can drink water).
Also request B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate if you've not had them recently.
Everything has to be optimal. Excerpt - he might refuse an increase if he only takes notice of the TSH only. (it varies throughout the day. This is really how we'd like to be treated:-
"Dear Thyroid Patients: If you have thyroid gland failure--primary hypothyroidism--your doctor is giving you a dose of levothyroxine that normalizes your thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level. Abundant research shows that this practice usually does not restore euthyroidism--sufficient T3 effect in all tissues of the body. It fails particularly badly in persons who have had their thyroid gland removed. Unfortunately, the medical profession has clung to the misleading TSH test since the some physicians decided to do so in the 1970s. Doctors are taught that hypothyroidism is a high TSH--when it is, in fact,
the state of inadequate T3-effect in some or all tissues. They are taught wrong. TSH not a thyroid hormone and is not an appropriate guide for either the diagnosis or treatment of hypothyroidism. The hypothalamic-pituitary secretion of TSH did not evolve to tell physicians what dose of inactive levothyroxine a person should swallow every day. A low or suppressed TSH on replacement therapy is not the same thing as a low TSH in primary hyperthyroidism. IF you continue to suffer from thesym ptoms of hypothyroidism, you have the right to demand that your physician give you more effective T4/T3 (inactive/active) thyroid replacement therapy.
Will do and since finding forum have been doing own bloods. If I feel well from thyroid point of view I refuse point blank to reduce dose regardless of what twaddle GP spouts.
Just a thought, but as we all know doctors aren’t taught about thyroid properly shouldn’t there be some sort of lobbying outside medical schools until they are?
When I argued pointless testing thyroid as last checked December and I won’t be changing dose he did say would add in vit D and full iron plus vitamins. Fully expect there to be hormones on list too although NICE guidelines say pointless over age of 45.
Have medichecks on order, special offer this weekend.
Ahhh .....how nice would it be, to talk about your health with a Doctor who you have faith in , who has considered your history, and gives his advice for you to consider using your intelligence and personal experience .......................... and then i woke up
feel your frustration at the pointlessness of it all.
To be fair to them on the 'quick' look at your notes front........ have you seen the shonky mess they keep your history in ?
I recently got 17 yrs of past history on a computer disk from GP...... it took several hours over a few days to compile a chronological list of Date , dose , Tsh, FT4 ( + an occasional FT3 ,and TPOab s x 3 lucky me) along side GP comment's from consultations related to thyroid blood tests.
Now that i've put that info in a list on one side of A4, it's easy to see what's been normal for me ie;
TSH 0.05 =ok ish. TSH <0.02 =over med. TSH >0.5=under med/ FT4 top of range/ FT3 mid range.
But the way they record it, they can only see things in isolation, ie; blood test /date, but no consultation comments. Or previous blood test result, but no way of seeing all of them together.
but that's still no excuse for not listening...... if they spent 2 of your precious 10 minutes doing that you could probably tell them your history.
My notes are ‘lost’ from when we changed surgeries 15 years ago. We changed because I wasn’t being listened to about cardiac symptoms at original surgery. Other 3 family members notes made it from one surgery to other. So I have few notes as generally avoid going to see GP if can help it.
Your surgery might need to update it’s software as been able to see historical blood results as a spreadsheet for ages now in hospital setting and GP showed me my history of low TSH after last blood test. Possibly 8 readings, they don’t seem to be able to print them in that format though.
that's reassuring , perhaps it's not as bad as i thought then........... now they just need to learn how to interpret them (correctly!) and all will be well with the world
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feel your frustration at the pointlessness of it all.
Follow up with GP or not?
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