Women’s Health: please share stories of interactions with NHS Dr’s

. I also don’t like the close links between the doctor, whose name I forget, who advises British thyroid uk & the company that makes the main synthetics used.
Presumably you mean btf and that has recently changed. Also, if it's Dr Perros, he conceded in a paper that t3 is useful for some. Ndt doesn't have the correct ratio for humans anyway which is the ongoing issue.

Yes there's an array of 'thyroxine'. We aren't 'fixed' when on any form of external thyroid hormone. There's a very big picture with thyroid that's not passed on the the patient (more below) and not even fully understood yet. Eg circadian rhythms etc. But t4 is the most stable. And for every person on health unlocked who like ndt, there's one who has issues with it.

There's been a massive trolling campaign against btf over the years which is a big fucking shame.

BTF also advocate for many other types of thyroid issue too and have done brilliant work in these areas. Eg cancer, TED, pregnancy. At the end if the day they work with gps and endos. Stupid to be dismissive due to ndt. That's a NICE guideline issue.

I personally believe better to engage with this organisation and keep sending the message that some aren't well.

The bigger picture of thyroid- I don't have time to fully explain the ins and outs but it's a combination of looking at a range of blood test levels, pacing, muscular skeletal strengthening, working tirelessly with a willing Gp and cbt type stuff. I know as I've been doing it for 20 years,

took me years

Forgot you could also research vaginismus and ask for a referral from GP. Most HCP are very ignorant about it. I was misdiagnosed as having endometriosis for four years when it was actually vaginismus - had three operations for the non-existent or non-problematic endometriosis as the doctors did not listen to what the symptoms were. Vaginismus is less likely with you (if pain comes and goes and sex is possible) but I thought I’d mention it as it took me hers to be diagnosed and hear about it.

Pennydrew yes, I'm considering that. Thanks for the tip about endometriosis, will look it up.

Oh, and one helpful nurse told me during a smear test that I have a "low pain threshold". A few months after a 20 hour labour.

Sex has been painful off and on for most of my life. I've tried telling various nurses and they look a bit sad but don't suggest anything. I've never felt able to go to a GP with it as it's not an illness / guilt that I'm taking time away from patients who need them more. I've looked up various exercises and stuff off the web and have considered private care.

I had really great post-natal care but am in a minority of one amongst my immediate friends and family.

I am currently struggling horribly with pelvic nerve pain and sciatica, plus other symptoms which are all a bit weird and wonderful. It is so hit and miss when you see a doctor. I had one consultant tell me that my constant, debilitating pain was just something to put up with after pregnancy and was probably “just hormones”. He did not like it one bit when I started questioning, “which hormones? Why? What tests have you done so you can confirm that diagnosis? Would you, a spinal surgeon, even be qualified to give that as a formal diagnosis?” He binned me off back to the GP after that but I was so fucking angry that he would think it was ok to say that.

I’ve had an incredibly arrogant pain consultant tell me that I was expecting too much when I said I just wanted my normal life back. Apparently I should just be accepting that at 32 I will be in pain forever, without a proper diagnosis (fairly vital for benefits etc) and slowly get worse. I can’t work and I can’t live independently and I can’t look after my toddler. But yeah, I should just put up with it. Fortunately my latest consultant is a very nice man.

My experience of my GP surgery is that they are very good at making referrals to specialists for any condition. My experience is very similar to DH - I don't think I've been treated any differently in this respect.

The main difference is in their manner towards us. I discussed with DH the recent Radio 4 interview with Dr Polly Carmichael of the Tavistock where she kept laughing (about serious issues). I said to him that perhaps it was like the way doctors sometimes laugh at your concerns about a health issue - presumably as a way of saying it's nothing to worry about (although maybe they just find everything I say hilarious). It turns out he'd never experienced this, yet I've had this at least 3 times (from different doctors). He was astonished that doctors would actually do this.

'I don't want to be laughed at' is my main reason for avoiding seeing the doctor (when sometimes I probably should).

1. Took me 20 years of appalling, increasingly heavy and very painful periods (it eventually got to 11 days out of every 22) and finally seeing a female GP for it to be taken seriously - every male GP I saw brushed me off. Referral by female GP got me seen by a specialist and successfully treated.

1. Young relative of mine had not started menstruating at age almost 17 - had been taken to see male GP several times, got brushed off. She's an athlete and began suffering stress fractures of her feet, parents took her to a private specialist - diagnosed with very low bone density caused by lack of menstruation. Has not been able to compete for almost 2 years now...

True as it's difficult to regulate properly. I personally wouldn't take it. They are supporting a campaign around t3 though. Some of their office volunteers were on t3.

The ideal drug would be one that includes t3 or a long lasting t3 (if humanly possible). They reported on one that was being developed but when I did some searching it appears to have been abandoned.

However - clearly the fact that medicine is not meeting the needs of all its thyroid patients who are mostly women is an issue.

I'll also add that t4 has been fine for me as long as I've been incredibly forceful regarding tests and results and checking for other potential issues.

Yep. Having to go private again because of respiratory problems. Umpteen cancelled appointme y. Back to back doses of steroids.
Actually in hospital now on a nebulizer having an attack.
This going on 2 years. Took ages for a referral. No real treatment started . Despair

Penny, thank you so much. I’ve just emailed them. I have to take some control back. I’ve given the NHS years of trust and lost the chance to have another child because the thyroid couldn’t be stabilised. I have been offered ADs time and time again when I have gone to the doctors about my thyroid and other health problems. I just need to not be fighting a battle every time I speak to a doctor.

Before my hypothyroidism was diagnosed, I was accused by at least one doctor, outright, of making up my problems for attention and because I ‘couldn’t cope’ with my university course. Once medicated (successfully in those days; sadly post-childbirth it has all been incontrollable) I went back to that tough uni course and got the highest degree possible. I just wish I’d studied medicine instead so I could have been a not horrible doctor!

Hi in South London. Several surgeries in this area regarded as good. One factor helping in my surgery is a cohort of older women in 40s and 50s who have seen it all in life and are thoughtful and thorough.

However saw a male doctor there recently regarding followup from a hospital visit and he was insistent on writing to the specialist about an issue which I had not thought was that big a deal. I was very touched by his concern about me and to get it right.

I do just need to do a shout out for the British thyroid foundation.

Care for women with thyroid issues in pregnancy (mainly under active) is appalling. I wish I could write more.

I was involved with them as a patient on writing their most recent thyroid in pregnancy guidelines.

It's the charitable wing of the British thyroid association (of endos ). So if people write to the foundation with issues they do try to get this across through NICE etc. More people seem to be going to TUK but they don't have the same 'welly' so to speak.

In your few opening sentences I knew it would be undiagnosed thyroid issue.

And yep, fobbed off with anti depressants.

I've started threads and commented on threads in the past regarding the treatment of women with thyroid issues being a sexist issue.

My mother suffered for years with pain and bowel issues, culminating in her being told she had a large mass in her bowel that was likely malignant. She had half her bowel removed, they said great, its not malignant but no idea what it was. They couldn't understand why she was upset and pushing for more tests/info. They ignored her every appointment when she'd said 'It's definitely every month the pain worsens then goes again, are you sure it's not connected to the endemetriosis I was diagnosed with at 16?'. She just got shrugs and 'No, that's not very likely, it's just a coincidence.' For a decade! Guess what it turned out to be?

I developed sacroiliac issues, pain and awful sciatica when pregnant 13+ years ago. It's better than it was now, but didn't disappear after the birth as they'd said it would. No scans or xrays done since, just string painkillers, useless physio, shrugs and 'This happens after pregnancy/birth sometimes'. My father developed bad sciatica in January. By April he'd had every scan under the sun, diagnosed with a spinal and sacroiliac issue and was having surgery to fix it! I pushed and pushed for a scan - I have exactly the same problem. Still waiting to see if they'll even agree to fix me though. My kids have missed out on me being able to play/run/walk with them for years because women's pain isn't taken seriously!

I've experienced worse from the NHS, but the instance that shocked me the most was a male doctor telling me it was normal for women to experience debilitating pain during or after sex.