Apologies if already posted. The link below is to a government consultation for women's health care in England which has just been posted by a member on the PA forum.
This is a chance to highlight the lack of care and support from very many clinicians in response to thyroid disease, as well as the often related PA/B12 deficiency, adrenal and other autoimmune conditions in general, i.e. problems that are caused by delayed diagnosis and insufficient treatment., etc.
It appears that others can respond on behalf of women, even if outside the UK.
I have done it. Most important that these issues be noted and hopefully we should see an improvement in the way women are treated by medical professionals... or am I dreaming?
I forgot to mention heart problems. Research for heart diseases were only conducted on men. Women, often, do have different symptoms to men’s, so they don’t get the investigations required and die prematurely from heart/circulation problems.
Quite right JGBH - I'll never forget when a friend of a friend in her late fifties, who'd been admitted as an emergency for a suspected heart attack, shockingly died of a heart attack walking out of the hospital doors, after she'd just been cleared and discharged.
My own heart problems, including a second leaky valve found on scan, disappeared after time on the right dose of thyroid medication. I'd also been on such a high dose of BP medication, I was walking around dizzy, which was ignored. I halved them when I realised they'd probably given me the dose recommended for a 12 stone male.
Sorry to hear about your debilitating problem.... Hope you’re coping better now. It’s quite incredible that women’s health problems seem to be so ignored, indeed dismissed through lack of adequate research and a big dose of arrogance. I did mention that in the survey. So important. Keep well x
🤗 Thank you and Good for you JGBH. I'm finally well after self treatment for Hashi's, PA/B12 and, more recently, suspected Addisons. Herbs prescribed for AD by recommended highly qualified local herbalist made a huge difference (terrible anxiety disappeared & hair grew back 🤗) after the hospital and GPs failed to diagnose suspected AD, even though I had classic symptoms and research by Addison connected it to PA after damaged adrenals found in autopsies !
What happened to good old fashioned doctoring by listening to symptoms to deliver the right diagnosis🤔
Glad you’re finally feeling better Polaris. However patients have to do all the work , the research and demand to have tests and treatment! Good old fashioned doctoring is gone for ever. The future is bleak for young people, as though it wasn’t bad enough as it is at the present time, their lifespan will be shorter than ours, I fear.
Absolutely 😰- many of us have noticed more conditions like thyroid disease, diabetes, CFS, are developing earlier and not being picked up.
Very good advice on this forum to always ask for a print out of tests done and do your own research. My son would not have discovered high blood sugar levels (now on Dr Moseley's '8 Week Diet') and daughter battling to get her T3 back, originally prescribed by a specialist. It's hard to believe how bad things have become.......
It’s true things have really deteriorated.... If one doesn’t do any accurate research, knows what questions to ask and what tests/investigatons to request then nothing happens! I am trying to advise my wonderful 24 year old grandson to request various tests, one for diabetes, but in the wisdom of youth and sense of immortality he thinks I fuse too much! I am worried. Nothing more I can do at the moment...
🙁 do know that feeling JGBH....... Granddaughter though surprised us recently by admitting that she's probably allergic to gluten after I gave her Dr Kelly Brogan's book, 'A Mind of your Own', and my son has also given up bread. It's a start, hopefully......
That’s positive... However my grandson is stubborn.... and keeps on telling me he’s an adult.. so until he matures a little more... nothing can be done. Then we argue... that’s a shame because we’re very close.
Exactly the same problem in our family - trying to button my mouth up has been SO hard but I'm sure your grandson deep down knows it's because you really care and want the best for him x
Yes so hard when you want the best for people in general and more so those you love. He knows I care and love him so much but feels.. in his young adult’s head, that I treat him like a child and must respect boundaries! Ah well...
How about "Everyones" Health Care!
No one seems Immune from Bungles and it's in your head/we can't work you out and a whole range of plethoras!
Had it myself 111 said go straight in when had pains and constant like being hit over the head with an Hammer as a sign of either heart attack or blood clots! = Left sitting there wheeled round back see a Quack who say's think to do with fibro now F off!
Yet never added two and two together as had been on Testosterone which =thicker blood/clots!
While later/Few weeks after having so many issues inc vision issues was in DWP/J C of all places it all came to a head all the lights was going out so to speak! Everything was going numb split vision coloured lights and all sorts yet 999 said ring GP/111 got out of there and collapsed in road couldn't speak/move/do anything two police officers must have been around as they came to me with one behind propping me up then Paramedic turned up my BP was twice what it was normally! 185/115 and while he was doing vitals PC was telling him my face was dropping!
Even while waiting with Ambulance lady while being booked in said my face was like been to dentist all numb and could barely speak. Yet nothing seemed passed on they did a few things said spoke to stroke consultant and threw me out!
Still suffering effects 10 years odd later as changed way i am.
Still get told "Panic Attack"by numerous yet when came out of hospital while back as after all this time found Pulmonary Embolism so now on Blood thinners had a chat with GP about this Panic attack Fetish!.
Said ive looked up Panic Attack and not much applied to me but FAST did and told her what's gone on/happened.
Even Stroke Association said classic Stroke after said i'm short with people can be very curt and can't deal with many things like Tube for one as i'm Autistic/Asperger's and now get very fraught in places/situations plus memory/doing things even typing as spellings poor now and type words wrong.
So the only "F.A.S.T" i got was out the Door "NEXT"!
I absolutely agree with 'good health for everyone' and, having also had an i.t.a., I'm so sorry oscarbravo that you've had to go through so much for so long with it seems very little done to get to the bottom of why?
I suppose you could say I was lucky in that, having already read up and discovered the effects of undertreated thyroid disease and low vitamin B12 having three in our family with both, I eventually came to realise the effect it has on homocysteine, (causing it to be high and, therefore, at risk of stroke and heart attack). One of the tests for B12def. is homocysteine but the most accurate is the MMA test. I would read up and start there?
Tracey Witty's website has really good information/advice/videos on vitamin B12def. (one of the symptoms is fibromyalgia) and ask GP for tests to be done - don't supplement yet as it will skew tests and make diagnosis even harder!
Going back to the survey above, historically, women have had a much harder time being listened to, with medical books and research concentrating on the male body and treating the effects of drugs on the body as though we are the same. Apparently, it is only fairly recently that research has pointed up sex differences in every tissue and organ in the body - lung capacity, workings of the heart etc:
"Women are three times more likely to develop autoimmune diseases, making 80% of those affected. ". Nobody understands why but researchers think it could be down to women being the child bearers, and makes sense of why many develop thyroid problems after childbirth:
"the theory is that females evolved a particularly fast and strong immune response to protect developing foetuses and new born babies".
I really hope you can source the right treatment soon Hidden 🤞🤞
Although this isn't thyroid-related I thought it was very well written and worth reading, and the people on this forum would be able to empathise and sympathise.
A group called Chronic Illness Inclusion (that I have never come across before) have written a submission for the UK (or England?) government's women's healthcare survey.
I would like to say I was shocked or surprised by it, but I'm really not - it is pretty much par for the course in healthcare these days.
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