GP told me to stop wasting his time - AIBU?

[TimeWastingTeresa]

I had my third trip to my GP today in 3 months.

I feel like absolute rubbish constantly - tired all the time , achy , generally run down .

My hair is awful - dry as a bone and gets greasy at the roots within hours of a wash.

My skin is so dry it flakes . My legs look like a reptiles !

My periods are much heavier than usual - I need to change a super plus tampon after 3 hours . I used to wear regular for the whole duration.

I have gained over a stone in weight in less than a year and I just can't shift it .

My GP ran bloods around a month ago and all vitamin levels were fine.

My thyroid came back as TSH 4.5.

He told me everything was normal and to go back in 6 months .

I went back a month later as I just don't feel well at all.

He ran bloods again and again my TSH came back as normal (4.5).

He told me I'm fine and I'll feel better if I exercise and lose weight .

I can not go on like this so I went back today and he told me that I just need to lose some weight . He told me not to come back before 6 months is up as there's nothing wrong with me .

I left in tears .
I feel so down . I'm so so tired I can't cope with much at all.

I look and feel disgusting . My hair is dull and lifeless and my scalp is so dry .

I don't know what to do

My mum says I should go private but if my TSH comes back as 4.5 again , my GP will still refuse to treat it !

Help please !

No advice about your medical condition but you should definitely see another GP. It sounds like you're having a really tough time.

I sometimes wonder about British standards of medical "wellness" in tests. I'm Spanish. A former (British) boyfriend used to have medical problems similar to yours - constantly exhausted, a number of symptoms which just wouldn't disappear. The British doctors ran tests and told him there was nothing wrong with him, which made him despair.

We travelled to Spain and had the tests repeated. By Spanish standards, his iron levels were appallingly low. Apparently, Britain follows WHO standards for iron - which (at least back then) were 15. This, it should be pointed out, is the standard used in third world countries like Ethiopia. In Spain the minimum is 30. My boyfriend had 13, which was very low even by British standards, but the doctors didn't tell him because "it wasn't so much". By Spanish standards it's horrifyingly low (iron levels in Spain tend to be higher because, well, we tend to eat better).

He took iron supplements for months and felt much better. Even though the British doctors kept insisting that there was nothing wrong with his blood count - which, even by their own standards, was very poor.

So yes, find a second opinion. And a doctor who's not lazy or resentful.

Please please please check out Candida Albicans Overgrowth. It has many symptoms like chronic fatigue, dry hair and skin, depression, skin rashes, big belly, headaches. Described as "feeling unwell all over". My doctor didn't believe me either.

I've registered just to tell you this, it sounds like it could be what I had. The doc can check your levels of good and bad bacteria by doing a stool sample. It is curable by diet, if you want to ask me anything please feel free to message, I have been fighting off this thing for two years, it started with dry skin and hair. I wish you well. :)

www.mindbodygreen.com/0-8376/10-signs-you-have-candida-overgrowth-what-to-do-about-it.html

Well, have you followed the dr's advice though? Or have you changed nothing about your diet/exercise habits and just gone back after not feeling any better? Might be worth giving it a shot before crying foul..?

Poor OP, and MN is the best place for advice sometimes

Look you could have one of the many conditions on here , and it might be shortfall in one of your minerals too.

My tuppence is:
Change GP
make sure you exercise, if you don't already
in the short term change to more natural products
keep a food and symptom diary

So many people have managed to improve though diet, may I ask what your day to day diet is like?

Are you on any type of medication?

Being tired all the time and run down can be a symptom of all kinds of things (most obviously anaemia) , and can also be very difficult indeed to get taken seriously.

Family members of mine are retired doctors. Just before they retired they had a nasty private joke they enjoyed, which was role playing doctors with their grandchildren and basically mocking people who come in to see a doctor saying they were tired all the time, with shared eye rolling and sniggering at one another, lovely private joke, make believe patient told they'd be all better if they got off the sofa and got some fresh air, maybe get a dog...

A year or so later one of them retired and then self diagnosed with Lupus (despite being a long way outside the age group that develop Lupus) - she was tired all the time you see, terrible thing to have to deal with, obviously something serious... Absolutely no acknowledgement of the irony.

Some GPS are arrogant twats. End of. I went to see my GP every fortnight for 2 and a half months. She gave me antibiotics and a paper bag and a lot of 'fobbing off'. Went back to my parents, saw childhood GP, was sent to A and E with a letter and didn't come out of hospital for two weeks.

A doctor friend of mine confided in me that they are given a rule about ignoring young people repeating coming in (i.e. investigate!) but it appears lots ignore it.

When I first saw a GP with my symptoms he told me I was going through the early menopause. I fought for the antibody test, and the gynae I was seeing was highly of the opinion I was nowhere near perimenopause, let alone being in any danger of early menopause.

As they decided to adopt a watch and wait procedure but refused any help other than to manage other symptoms - I'm on medication for autoimmune gastritis and for other recurrent associated issues like joint inflammations and constipation (never suffered before this) - I decided to look into dietary options as I figured it couldn't harm me. I tried stripping out some of the major 'problem' foods and then adding them in, keeping a diary. I now know what upsets my stomach and reduces my inflammation. I'm not perfect, I really struggle sometimes too but I'm also in a far better place than I was even 2 years ago.

Vitamin B12 deficiency causes a lot of the symptoms that you describe. Including thyroid imbalance.

NRFT so sorry if this mentioned before, but could it be polycystic ovaries maybe?

You generally know when somethings not right. I spent 8 years with infection after infection after infection and in the doctors almost every week
It took the full 8 years, a locum doing a blood test who read the results, pulled up the other 50+ blood tests I had over the years, went "Jesus" and rang me sending me straight to haematology
When you have virtually no neutrophils it's pretty hard to fight infection...

Repent - Are you advising the OP to buy medication from the internet that her GP has said she doesn't need?

I thought I was advising the opposite

I buy my medication online because I can't convert T4. T3 makes me feel alive again, but there is only one supplier in the UK so the price is very inflated and I can't afford to pay over £100 every month for 30 tablets. So I buy it from a trusted supplier abroad.

BUT - I knew exactly what my problem was before I started self-medicating. The OP doesn't know yet, and chances are as soon as she finds a decent GP (I think we have established that the current one isn't decent, so let's not worry about his opinions) she should have little trouble getting a full bloods panel and a trial of levothyroxine.

I'd look at lifestyle and diet - because it's not going to hurt and you can then go back and say done all that.

But I would also go back. Friend of mine had routine GP appointment ended up with a locum - walking out door locum asks what are they doing about the goitre? And she was like what?

She had one set of blood done come back borderline instead or re-doing as they should have done they diagnosed post natal depression. Baby was two and half by that point - treatments for depression hadn't sorted anything in that time.

I'm not saying it's your thyroid levels - I have no idea - am saying a different set of eye on you could be the best thing.

So many people saying it sounds like this or that! Dismissing a gp as lazy or inefficient.... has the whole of MN been to medical school then? Worked in a practice?

Op.... have you actually tried what the go suggested? Lost some weight, taken regular exercise?

Oh yes because these are all just stemming from being fat. Really pisses me off that no matter what is wrong with you it's either because you're overweight or stressed. I would see a different GP.

GPs haven't got a clue about thyroid problems, mine told me I was completely infertile with no hope of conceiving even with ivf. Paid to see a private fertility specialist who advised that you can't conceive with a TSH over 2.5 as it throws all of your other hormone levels out (mine was 4.5 too). 3 weeks on 25mcg of thyroxine & I was pregnant! The battles we had trying to get my levels monitored once I was pregnant were ridiculous too, see if you can get an appointment with an endocrinologist. It scares me to think what would've happened if we'd listened to the GP. Hope you get sorted

RepentAtLeisure Sorry, are you saying you were diagnosed by an NHS doctor as having hypothyroidism and yet refused a prescription for thyroxine?

Encouraging people to buy prescription medication over the internet is incredibly dangerous. Thyroxine is a dangerous drug if taken unnecessarily (side effects include, for example, atrial fibrillation).

The problem with hypothyroidism is that it has a broad range of symptoms which many people fit (fatigue, weight gain, dry skin). It's very easy to see these symptoms in yourself if you are expecting to find them. However, these can be caused by many different things e.g. depression, chronic fatigue, poor diet/deficiencies. It is unhelpful to be treated for something you do not have.

OP, by all means go and see a different GP if you are still feeling unwell. However, are you sure that this is exactly how the consultation went? It's easy to focus on the negatives when you're feeling vulnerable and stressed. I hope you find an answer soon.

I don't doubt that the consultation went exactly as the OP described it.

The NHS has no more money if the op can get better through exercise and eating healthily isn't that better than medication. You sound silly not to take that advice how do you know if there is an underlying problem if you are not taking care of yourself.

I refused the prescription for Levothyroxine because it failed to work and I don't have a thyroid. Buying thyroid hormones on the internet saved my life, frankly. But like Repent, no one is advising the OP to do that. They are however warning her that GP's are, broadly speaking, hopeless at diagnosing and treating thyroid disease. No fault of their own, the training is woefully out of date.

With a TSH of 4.5 you'd be treated for hypothyroidism in most civilised (and a few uncivilised) countries op. Do ask the GP to check thyroid antibodies, Free T4 level and B12 levels. If they refuse, go private. What you don't want to do is accept a label of Chronic Fatigue or depression. That way lies madness.

Are you in your late 40's/early 50's, if so it could be your peri menopausal?!

The op posted that she gained 1 stone weight she didn't post that she tried to lose it and how. You can say oh its a thyroid problem she might be able to lose that weight with out the tests. You can not diagnose it until you have tried everything first.

If the op posted I eat healthily all year and exercised 3 - 4 times a week and I haven't lost an ounce. Thats when you get yourself checked for issues. I know its hard but you have to try first.