Guess my conditions... cause the GP has no clue.

[startstopengine]

I've just gone into a GP appt fully prepared with my 6 months worth of symptoms.

Her take.. come off HRT and I'll put you on non hormonal antidepressants instead, cut out fibre from your diet and follow a FOMAP plan?

She has ordered in some bloods but any guesses? She's told me I'm not diabetic as my bloods said I wasn't.

Below for the long list...

Thought some were peri menopause related?

Thirst (increases)
Waking at night
Hungry
Sweating smelling like vinegar
Weight gain over 12kg in 8 months
Gastric pain and bloating weekly
Top area of stomach goes really hard
Tired sleeping for 14+ hours
Tired in the afternoons
Blurry eyes for a whole day (eye test) glasses
Gum work having to be done at dentist
Intolerance to any alcoholic drinks
Headaches low level fuzzy
Dizziness occasionally
Hair thinning
Nails brittle

I’m on HRT patch and non cyclic progesterone that stopped a zillion other symptoms, hot flushes, night sweats, awful biweekly heavy bleeding. So HRT has been good to me.

These are all low level until recently they seem to come and go and flare up., but are becoming more obvious

Main issue that’s bothering me is weight gain, I’m tracking 1200 calories a day and I’m still gaining weight, 5k+ steps exercise 3-4 times a week, I literally couldn’t be any better!

As far as I know, soy products and thyroid medication don't mix well. It's something like that they connect with the same receptors in your body, so soy will block (some of) the thyroid medication. It does not seem to be dangerous in that you cannot eat any crumb of soy products at all (like gluten-intolerance) but I would look this up further on health portals and other reliable sites before adding soy intentionally. It could lead to needing a lower dose of medication in the long run.

Sometimes soy products are mentioned in connection with being an HRT-alternative, so it makes sense that they could have influence on hormones.

And seaweed can be high in iodine, depending on whether hypothyroidism is from low iodine or anti-immune reasons, the latter does not mix well with random amounts of iodine (especially dried seaweed can be very concentrated).

OP, I agree with some suggestions here that low iron, hypothyroidism, low vitamin D, low B12, stomach/gluten issues would be useful areas to check.
Besides, it might be that there are several things going on that interact with each other.
High blood pressure can also lead to dizzyness and headaches.
Smelling like vinegar could be an infection or diabetes, too. There is some rule of thumb that the smell like nail varnish remover is an indicator for diabetes, maybe you register it like vinegar?
Most of these things are fixable, though, and prediabetes can often be altered completely by changing diet.

Ok great advice

The smell is only at nighttime and only occasionally but different enough to be noticeable, when I'm exercising and sweaty it just normal?

unexplained weight gain, bloating, abdo pain, feeling like you have a pregnancy mass, fatigue, perimenopausal age group - not common, but would suggest GP excludes ovarian cancer with a simple blood test (CA-125) and ultrasound scan of the pelvis

That was on her list for checks as well 👍

Great to hear

Just checking it and it appears I have very low vitamin D, it's below 40 and the normal range is 50-374.

I'm on the NHS app seeing results, and whoever has reviewed this has put "no action needed"

My serum ferritin's is actually higher than normal range. 165? But is marked as normal no concerns? Normal range is 13-150

Seems everything else is bang in the middle of normal range which is fab news my ca 125 all good.

So tips on upping vitamin D? I've seen the sprays and something about taking magnesium to help absorption?

Or shall I just up my foods with vitamin D, or alternatively move to the south of France?

Take a good quality vitamin D supplement. Minimum of 1000 IU (international units) per day. When my vit.D was low I think I was told to take 2000-3000 IU per day for a few months, retest, and then drop down dosage if my level had improved.

I hope that increasing your vit.D does the trick and you feel better.

The symptoms described can point to several possible health conditions. While only a medical professional can provide a definitive diagnosis, the combination of symptoms could indicate the following potential issues:

1.	Diabetes Mellitus:
•	Increased thirst and hunger
•	Frequent waking at night
•	Weight gain
•	Blurry vision
•	Fatigue
•	Increased urination (if not mentioned, it’s often a key symptom)
•	Sweating with a vinegar-like smell might suggest diabetic ketoacidosis (a serious complication of diabetes)
2.	Hypothyroidism:
•	Weight gain
•	Fatigue and excessive sleeping
•	Hair thinning
•	Brittle nails
•	Cold intolerance (sometimes manifests as tiredness in the afternoon)
3.	Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS):
•	Weight gain
•	Hair thinning
•	Fatigue
•	Possible gastrointestinal issues

Are you my gp? 🤣

I have some if the same symptoms and my gp is gagging to get my so doped up on anti depressants that I don't care about anything anymore. I declined

Did you check with Dr Google/webmd?

Parkrun500club has the right answer in that once you decrease calorie level to a certain amount your body goes into what is called starvation mode. You need to increase calories gradually. What is your height? At 5'5" you need to be 1560 for rest of your lifetime - moderate activity.

As well as thyroid consider hyperparathyroidism.

• fatigue
• thirst and peeing a lot
• nausea
• muscle weakness
• stomach pain
• loss of concentration
• confusion
• weight gain

The test for it is calcium levels.

I'm 5,2 and used to weight train, when I'm active and training 3+ a week 1500 -1600 is ok maintenance, but I'm less active so have dropped to 1100-1200 and low carb higher protein and good veggies, but still stuck and gaining.

Is that bone markers, that was normal range as well.

Thank you! I hope it really is as simple as upping my vitamins, I just feel a tad stupid that it hadn't crossed my mind and I think I was thinking worse case, it's got to be something more.

Maybe it will give me the beans to shift this stubborn weight that's still going upwards.

But by pushing for more bloods I now know to reduce my cholesterol and that I'm pre diabetes, so some more diet tweaks needed.

@startstopengine just to let you know that increased serum ferritin is associated with inflammation and metabolic disease - in your case probably elevated due to pre diabetes. I was diagnosed t2 abd mine was over 300. I reversed my t2 through low fat high carb whole food plant based diet (check out mastering diabetes) keto is thé worst thing for diabetes - the low-carb high fat suppresses your blood sugar levels but it doesn’t resolve the issue of the fact that you have too high fat level in your cells which is preventing the uptake of glucose hence why a low-fat but high carb diet can actually in the long-term produce better results. Will also help with your cholesterol

you can PM me if you want any more info

1,000 Vit D is a maintenance dose for healthy people to see them through a UK winter. Those who need upping slightly, or have bad diets or have IBD type symptoms need more. As long as it's below 5,000 a day you will be fine but it's best to take with Vitamin K as the K helps your bones absorb it rather than it floating around your system. I take the Better You 3,000 spray with added Vit K as I cant go in the sun (booooo!) but have a look around.

Coeliac

For the pre-diabetes, is further testing available? eg a glucose tolerance test, or HbA1C? I’m in Australia so I don’t know what the standard testing is in the UK.

OP I am on vitamin D capsules from October to May. Sorted.
Oh, edit to say it is one capsule a month. So not exactly onerous.

They will have done an hba1c to ascertain pre diabetes…they won’t do any further testing at this stage

Final update else this will get very boring, but hopefully may unravel some symptoms for others.

Spoken to a new GP he has said I need to also supplement folate for the next 3 months as it's low. He said there is a link between starting and taking HRT (oestrogen) and folate levels.

So I need to up my D and folate and he's said also take a multivitamin as well and recommended happy hormones brand? Said the quality was good and it's good balance.

I had most of that and it was all down to an underactive thyroid which I believe started with perimenopause. NHS were no help at all, I was falling apart and on my knees and they told me there was nothing wrong with me. There so clearly was! Went and saw a private doctor, got the under active thyroid diagnosis and started medication. Took a while but I'm fine now. Digestion working as it should, and everything else too. Looking back it was like my body had the handbrake on and was doing its best but just couldn't work properly.

Have you had ferritin B12 vitamin D tested as well?
No idea if it's still going or not but there used to be a very good website/forum called thyroid patient advocacy