Pondering the practice of testing TSH/FT4/FT3

[Recon]

As I have been expending all of this energy attempting to educate myself and my endocrinologist - as I would like to be well and stay well, it made me wonder... Is there another hormone that is typically replaced, and then tested to see what the levels are? In other words, would my GP order a test directly of my blood for levels of estrogen? Or testosterone? Or would they test some other indicator of what the level of that hormone was in my blood? And then would they adjust the dose based on that other indicator? I am ignorant of these things, and was just wondering... why is it so hard to have the GP or endo actually LOOK at my FT's and make decisions based on that? Maybe I'm just in need of a Friday whine as I get ready for my face-to-face next week with my GP, and then my endo in a few weeks.

Thanks.

[greygoose]

They won't look at the thyroid hormones themselves because they were taught in med school that the TSH 'tells them all they need to know'. I honestly believe their aim is to diagnose as few people as possible, and to under-treat them as much as they can. All through ignorance because they were taught that hypothyroidism is no big deal.

There is another hormone that is tested indirectly by testing something else: Human Growth Hormone, a pituitary hormone. I've been told that it is difficult to test the actaul HGH - don't know why - so they test IGF1, which is a protein. But, highly unlikely a GP would test that, anyway.