Hello everyone,
I have another thread at the moment where I’ve detailed some blood results and have had some excellent and much appreciated advice.
As it stands I am undiagnosed, however I have tests on Monday 9th of May to hopefully bring me a step closer to figuring out what’s going on.
In case it helps anyone else, (and for my own sanity) I thought I would post here as things unfold and share what the GP says, along with how I’m feeling.
Here’s the background:
Im a 33 year old female, and I have suspected something has been amiss in regards to my hormones in general for 18 years.
At 15 I had a relatively sudden decline in general health, this included weakness, tiredness, heavy menstrual bleeding, lightheadedness, feeling cold, (random hot flushes to the face too) low mood, anxiety, dry skin / breakouts, muscle aches and anxiety. I’m sure there are more things that now escape my memory.
My GP at the time was incredibly dismissive and diagnosed anxiety and told me to lose weight. I tried my best (as best as you can at 15 years old) to explain this was sudden and I was struggling to get out of bed, that the lightheaded foggy feelings were very distressing, all to no avail. I was sent on my way.
A few weeks later I began having extreme feelings of dread and panic, I think this was because I knew something was wrong and felt I would feel like this forever because no one was listening.
The GP reluctantly ordered blood tests, I was told at the time they were “fine” but I was being referred to endocrinology. I’m still not sure to this day how normal blood tests meant a referral but anyway.
Stupidly (as I now realise) I got my hopes up I would get some help. I waited almost 6 months for the appointment. When it finally came round I attended the hospital and was told it was probably PCOS and to lose weight. The whole appointment was less than 15 minutes long.
The next couple of years were very very hard, but feeling weak and miserable and off balance became my normal and I just sort of learned to get on with it. I’ve had to make allowances for things I just can’t do, often missing out on lots of events and things I’d like to do. I convinced myself it was all just in my head and took my antidepressants, thinking I was just destined to always feel horrid.
The past few months it has reached a point where I refuse to carry on like this. I’ve mentioned these symptoms to doctors over the years and always, it’s dismissed and brushed away. However having recently moved house and having a new GP I thought I’ll give it one last go. Also pushed on to try by a family situation involving my brother where his concerns were dismissed about his own health and he is now in sudden end stage kidney failure and on dialysis awaiting transplant. This showed me that the doctors aren’t always right, that they do miss things and sometimes we just have to keep trying.
Before approaching my GP I decided to do some digging and try to educate myself a bit on what could be wrong with me. I requested my previous blood test results and looked over them. It said in bold LOW next to something called serum free T4, so I started there and googled. (Result was 11.2 (Range 12-22)
Hypothyroid came up in the searches and when I saw the list of symptoms my heart sank! Everything matched.
My initial thought was how was this missed, why did no one tell me? Sadly, after reading this forum it became very clear it’s all to common.
I rang my new GP and she was surprised it had been left and not followed up. I asked about the TSH result (which was 1.3 range 0.27-4.20) and did this just rule out hypothyroid because it wasn’t high enough? She was quick to explain what I secretly suspected after reading some posts here, that a low TSH doesn't necessarily mean it’s not, as there is something called central hypothyroid. She booked me in for bloods this coming Monday and we will go from there.
If you have gotten this far, we’ll done and thank you!
I called the doctors surgery back the day after and asked the receptionist if she could let me know what bloods I was booked in to have this coming Monday but she couldn’t tell me. Hopefully it will include T3 and various vitamin levels, if not I will go back and request these or go private if I have to.
Anyway, this is where we are as of now. I’m spending my time researching and trying to make sure I have at least some working base knowledge of what to expect and the questions to ask. Keeping a log here as I go along will hopefully be helpful for me, and perhaps others who are going through this too.
Autoimmune diagnosis 
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