Doctor Listened and Agreed.

[Ellie-Louise]

Yesterday I had a return visit appointment for something other than my thyroid.

During the visit I told the doctor that the blood test taken the week before after a change in dosage was useless because only TSH and T4 had been tested, and that to make any sort of sense of it I needed T3 as well which would have been the same as the previous test. I wanted to compare results to find out if the reduction in my Levo had made any sort of difference.

I mentioned that I was thinking of doing a private test of those three, but that if I did I would be concerned because I had heard that doctors dismiss private results. She replied that was because most private labs were not authorised…I think that was what she said…anyway you get the gist.

Then to my great surprise she told me that if I wanted T3 tested she could arrange it. So I made an appointment.

Woo Hoo!👍

[RedApple]

'most private labs were not authorised…I think that was what she said'

Yes, this is still a typical belief. Years ago, when private testing was only just becoming available, there may have been some justification. But now it's totally outdated. Most, if not all labs doing the private tests are also doing NHS tests, as well as private health sector testing.

The most blatant example is MMH (Monitor My Health), which promotes the fact that it is an NHS lab. monitormyhealth.org.uk

[RedApple in reply to RedApple]

Do keep us updated on this. Although your GP is requesting the FT3 test, there are still some labs that over-ride the request. This is one reason why the direct to customer testing companies have been so successful!

Hopefully yours will go through.

[Ellie-Louise in reply to RedApple]

Well I would imagine that the surgery use the same lab each time. They tested TSH/T4 and T3 in my first blood test so fingers crossed.

[SlowDragon Ambassador in reply to Ellie-Louise]

Remember

Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

[humanbean]

Info on Medichecks labs :

medichecks.com/pages/our-la...

Quote :

Our partner laboratories are fully accredited and are committed to the highest clinical standards by internal quality control (IQC) and external quality assurance through national schemes such as UK NEQAS. They have been inspected by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and have been accredited to ISO 15189. Furthermore, they participate in regular quality audits, clinical governance and accreditation inspections.

We work with three laboratories, Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics, Inuvi, and The Doctor's Laboratory (TDL).

...

Info on Blue Horizon Medicals labs :

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

Quote :

Accreditation Guarantee

The results that we provide you with are guaranteed to be from accredited laboratories, with the exception of the food intolerance tests which follow 12 strict quality control processes.

...

Info on MMH labs :

monitormyhealth.org.uk/our-...