Aibu- diagnosis detectives on BBC- must be a set up

[30yearstomorrow]

So just watches diagnosis detectives. Young women,s case...put on a lot of weight, hair loss...now I’m no medic or nurse but said to DH flippantly before they started their doctor’s discussion...polycystic ovaries. 3 specialist and numerous tests later...polycystic overlies...really?? Did it really need a bunch of “detectives” to figure this out when it seemed a likely cause to a laywomen....Aibu to say they have set this program up to be ground breaking when they’re actually dealing with stuff standard GPs should pick up. I’m shocked they made out this was difficult to diagnose.

Or Aibu to not realise just how crap the average GP is at diagnosing this that it took 8 years!!

Funnily enough I thought PCOS immediately as well.

You’d think. My PCOS was undiagnosed for 8 years. CLASSIC symptoms but scans misread, no blood tests etc.

I moved. New doctor. Diagnosed first day.

I agree it should be obvious but lots of people have shit doctors and many are unwilling to challenge them or change.

I don’t put up with shit anymore. My current surgery is fantastic. I wouldn’t want to move because they’re so good.

I think it's more about shit doctors who don't listen and inefficient systems that fail people.

I thought exactly the same. A quick search online of her symptoms would have probably led to the same answer. I get the impression from what was said at the end that everyone, inc her mother, has just made her doubt herself. Either that or she’s never heard of Google

Same as the lady last week - diagnosed, eventually, with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome when her symptoms were classic. More shockingly she was already being tube fed yet apparently undiagnosed with any condition. How was she so badly let down by the NHS?

I was just p***off that they didn’t say that it should have been picked up and obvious cause to investigate and how it is often missed- that would be more educational...but it was all along “ look what our really clever detectives have found out....that poor young women has been let down badly and they made no comment on it

Yes I think they should have said something about how it should have been picked up sooner

I didn’t see last weeks...I was so looking forward to this program but seems like its an oversell...my mum died young of a really rare condition ( one of the NORD ones) and she could have done with this approach..i thought it would be ground breaking...hmmm...

Merry old goat...glad you got sorted eventually...what is it with women’s conditions and GPs!💐

@30yearstomorrow

Merry old goat...glad you got sorted eventually...what is it with women’s conditions and GPs!💐

My surgery has 6 GPs who are all women. They’re the best surgery around and they’re fantastic. They’ve just brought on a man who is equally lovely.

They all care, are competent and are efficient.

Now I know what a good doctor looks like I’ll not accept anything else.

I was so shocked at how people with, maybe not common but certainly not 1 in a million type diseases just haven't been diagnosed properly in the NHS.

There was a man maybe in last week's one who had a skin problem - it was so bad he'd actually been in hospital with sepsis due to infections caused by it. He'd literally scratched his skin off and was suffering so badly - it was diagnosed as eczema but the itching and soreness was due to infection. Once he was on the correct antibiotic he started to improve and can now treat his eczema. The poor man nearly died and his life was a misery because no one could diagnose a skin infection????

They don't need the team of drs. Those people could have just asked the general public. I bet many people, through personal experience, would know more than the drs that had been treating them.

See I would have thought underactive thyroid. I thought PCOS caused excess hair (e.g. facial hair).

Ps not seen the programme.

I thought exactly the same. 8 years to diagnose something I got in 8 seconds..

Unfortunately there is the opposite case sometimes. I was diagnosed at 15 with PCOS going on similar symptoms. At 35, went for further tests as I didn't want to just put up with the symptoms and wasn't being treated as I didn't want children and wasn't a priority. Turns out I don't have PCOS. Don't know what i do have, but it's hormonal so it's "anyone's guess" feel almost worse now, and still no treatment.

It was so obviously PCOS that it was impossible to imagine that it had taken years to diagnose this. Poor woman.

And the poor little lass who clearly had psychosomatic problems that needed confidential and gentle handling - I felt very uncomfortable that she was on the TV. Her statement that her pain levels were 10 all the time was clear evidence that her perceptions were distorted by her psychological distress. As the credits rolled it says she was "waiting to see a psychologist" - the poor lass will probably wait a year or more; the service is in total disarray.

@Spidey66

See I would have thought underactive thyroid. I thought PCOS caused excess hair (e.g. facial hair).

Gives you hair where you don’t want it and you lose it from where you do.

Mischance...yes I agree about the other lass...too young to be a ole to really consent to being on tv with those type of issues😔

Out bloodyrageous It’s not that uncommon. But it's a women’s condition isn’t it...

There was a thread on here about women being ignored/misdiagnosed by doctors. Quite eye opening.

@Spidey66, because PCOS causes high levels of testosterone, it can cause a kind of male pattern baldness.

Hair on your head falling out with thicker more dense hair growing elsewhere.

How rude. AIBU? Yes you are. It goes on all the time. Patients going to their GP's and being dismissed. For years. And you don't know about this?

I've been fobbed off in the past by GPs so much so I don't bother going to see them and just self diagnose and take some vitamins! They say it's the menopause for most things anyway or just suggest HRT.
Most of them just stare at their computers rather than the patient. You can't get to see a GP now anyway.

Dd has recently being diagnosed as coeliac disease, elher danlos syndrome, fibromyalgia and POTS. I also think she may have vit b12 deficiency. She has classic symptoms for all of these but it’s taken 9 years for diagnosis.

In the end it was me who suspected coeliac disease and asked GP to test.

And last week when she saw the rheumatologist I wrote a big list of symptoms and put at the bottom ? Eds, ? Pots. But she’s been fobbed off by numerous GPS and a&e for years.

She had an a&e visit a few years ago with chest pain and palpitations and the dr even remarked how unusual it was for someone her age to have a hiatus hernia......something we now know is down to the EDS, chest pain and palpatations being other symptoms. He never put it all together.