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Original poster

If its not an underactive thyroid or anaemia...what could it be?

67 replies

DoItTooJulia · 27/08/2013 15:09

I have been feeling shitty for a while. I'm very tired and lethargic. Everything seems like too much effort.

I had a baby 9 months so and I had been putting my symptoms down to new mom knackeredness but I don't think it is that.

I went to see GP a couple of weeks ago who ordered thyroid function test and a full blood count. I called for the results today and was told that the doctor has seen them and hasn't asked for you to make another appointment. I assume that means they are ok.

Trouble is I still feel rotten. My hair is falling out, I have a constant low level headache and could sleep at any time. If I do sleep, I feel no better.

I have made another appt, but the next available was next week, which is aaaages away when I feel this crap.

Anyone any ideas?

OP posts:

MrsGSR · 28/08/2013 11:44

If you're breast feeding you'll need more protein than you normally do.
If the doctors draw a blank maybe try putting your average daily diet into myfitnesspal.com or similar, I eat quite a lot of chicken, beans and dairy and I was shocked to see how little protein I ate in the average day!

JuliaScurr · 28/08/2013 11:51

nutritional medicine might help - but its only private, not NHS
you will get very detailed blood/urine results
many mineral/vit/omega oil supplements

Ruralninja · 28/08/2013 12:07

even if vit d deficiency isn't causing all your symptoms, upping your levels can still have major health benefits (immune system, skin, bone density) so hassle gp for that test too. if they won't there is an Nhs lab that offers it mail order - just Google "vitamin D test"

flow4 · 01/09/2013 09:17

I'm another one saying 'vitamin D'... And also, get the precise test results... I had similar symptoms last year and was also investigated for thyroid problems and anaemia. I was anaemic, but the computer didn't flag me up as such, because the 'normal' range is 16-175 (I think that upper value is right, but I'm not sure) and the alert only triggers at 15 or below, and my result was 16. The GP prescribed iron as soon as she, rather than the computer, saw the results.
I was also low in vit D and took supplements for that too over the winter. My iron levels improved but I still felt lousy until my vit D levels increased too.

prettyanddainty · 01/09/2013 11:41

Can vitamin d deficiency cause hair loss then?

tazmo · 01/09/2013 11:52

Hair does fall out after pregnancy after the hormones wear off so that could be unrelated. I'm feeling TAT - being checked for sleep apnoea but also, pls don't rule out PND.

Oblomov · 01/09/2013 11:57

Ask for a print off. And then examine all the test results online.
One test may say 4%, so if you are x%, it might not highlight to your gp as an issue, but there may well be an issue there.

flow4 · 01/09/2013 12:42

Yes pretty. If you google it, you'll find lots of info.

prettyanddainty · 01/09/2013 13:21

Thanks flow I was diagnosed with a low vitamin d deficiency back in june and I have already taken the appropriate medication and according to the Dr I should now be replete, he said I should feel the effects of it in a couple of months is that right? I also have a low ferritin of 16, that's most likely why I am losing hair.

prettyanddainty · 01/09/2013 13:26

The thing that gets me is I asked two different Doctors at my surgery if a low vitamin d deficiency causes hair loss, they both looked at me as if I was stupid, and they said no in a sarcastic way.

flow4 · 02/09/2013 08:31

Most doctors know next-to-nothing about nutrition, in my experience.

topsi · 02/09/2013 09:08

I was diagnosed with vit D deficiency earlier this year. The Dr put me on a vit D supplement. After reading up I bought myself a months supply of a high strength supplement. I have also been trying to get as much sun as poss as this is the most effective way of increasing your levels, they can take months to come up though.
Hair falling out makes me think it may be Thyroid, as said prev the NHS is particularly bad at diagnosing especially if you are boarderline. It is worth doing your own research and maybe seeing a Dr privately if that would be poss.

topsi · 02/09/2013 09:10

Also if you are veggi it would be worth checking you vit B levels, the dr should do this for you.
Blue Horizons do home blood test kits and I can recommend them

duchesse · 02/09/2013 16:14

OP, I think you need to find out precisely what your TSH level was. You will not get treatment as standard if it was under 5, but you can still feel mighty shit when it's more than the optimal 1. Everybody's levels are different so if you are symptomatic (which it certainly sounds like like you are) then your GP really ought to consider either treating or referring you. Have you charted your temperature? Anything routinely below 36C is pretty much diagnostic of a low thyroid problem.

2old2beamum · 03/09/2013 13:22

Your symptoms echo mine a year ago, vitamin D in my boots and raised calcium levels and was diagnosed with Hyperparathyroidism (BTW has nothing to do with thyroid gland) Had a pesky little benign tumour removed HEY PRESTO I am back to normal (still grumpy )
There is a good website, very reassuring, Mayo Clinic I think.
Good luck

Original poster

DoItTooJulia · 04/09/2013 22:20

Been a bit fed up to update, so sorry for the delay.

My results were normal. I had to press to get them, iron levels were 14 and tsh was 27, but I missed the unit, so I'm thinking, having googled, it must have been 2.7.

The doctor told me I was fine and I need to manage my expectations in terms of what I could get done in a day. I cried. I asked about vitamin d and b12 and was told it wasn't that either.

I came away with a box of cocodamol for the headaches I am having.

OP posts:

duchesse · 05/09/2013 00:31

DoIt- you are manifestly not fine. Can you make an appointment with another GP in your practise? Sending you away with a potentially addicting drug for the headaches is just shabby.

Mine tried to slap me on antidepressants- fine if I had been depressed but I wasn't. This was after telling me it was my age (I was 36 FFS!) and generally fobbing me off. I have found I've had much better treatment from female GPs- in fact I switched my daughters and me to a female GP in the practise because I don't want them to have to put up with ill-informed prejudice from misogynistic arses when we might actually be ill.

flow4 · 05/09/2013 04:33

DoIt, I think 14 is low for iron - if not below the normal range, right at the bottom of it. If it was total iron serum that was tested, the normal range is something like 25-170; if it was ferritin, it is about 15-150. (Labs all seem to have slightly different ranges, so you need to know these as well as your own result.

You need to confirm that TSH result. If you didn't misread and your result was 27, then that's very high and strongly indicative of hypothyroidism.

You shouldn't have to press for your blood test results. They're yours. It sounds like the doc is too arrogant or (more charitably) too busy to print them off for you. You could try asking the receptionist. That's what I did the one time a gp treated me the way you've just been treated. I popped back the next day and said (as breezily as possible, as if obviously the answer was yes) "Oo, I forgot to ask yesterday... Could you give me a print out of my blood test results please?" The receptionist didn't bat an eye and printed them off within about 30 seconds! (And I avoided that gp from then on).

See another GP. Especially if you can't get a print out of your results, or you do get them and confirm they're not right... but probably anyway. Don't be fobbed off.

Sunnysummer · 05/09/2013 05:03

Just to double check - is there any chance you could be depressed? My sister was convinced for a long time that she had undiagnosed anaemia after her PPH, but actually it was antidepressants that helped to turn her around. Of course it's really important that the GP helps to exclude other issues, and this really isn't to doubt anything you're experiencing - just that it's sometimes worth a check, as depression is an illness that can manifest physically, especially with people who are very good 'copers'. In the meantime you definitely have a right to your test results and to a second opinion!

ernesttheBavarian · 05/09/2013 05:25

I know you are getting bombarded with many different suggestions, but I had symptoms very like yours. Couldn't really say what was wrong but felt generally crap and exhausted all the time. Really tired and lacking in energy and motivation.

Long story short, dx with coeliac disease. I didn't have any 'traditional' symptoms, only dx completely by chance because my dd had lots of symptoms. Then her results come back negative and mine positive.

All the things you've mentioned including low iron match. At the same time they then discovered iron and ferritin problem as thyroid problem but the root cause of these was the coeliac disease.

I would never have suspected it. Mainly cause I didn't know much (anything) about it, and then reading through the symptoms I probably would have answered no to most of them.

You need to see another doctor. One who actually listens and cares.

Original poster

DoItTooJulia · 05/09/2013 07:01

Ah, thanks all.

The doctor did keep asking me about my mood. I think he thinks it's depression. I don't. Feeling under the weather is making me feel low, for sure, but I really don't think it's full blown depression having seen some of my family go through it.

He said womens iron should be between 12 and 16, so mine was perfect.

I am considering seeing another doctor. And it's a good idea to get the results printed off by a receptionist.

It doesn't help that my symptoms are "wooly", you know it's not like I can lift up my top, show them rash and be ds with shingles IYSWIM?

OP posts:

flow4 · 05/09/2013 08:37

Well, it's hard to be sure without seeing the ranges and checking the units - maybe they did a different test - but I was told I was 'effectively anaemic' with a test result of 15. Women often do have iron levels that low because they menstruate, but it being common is not the same as saying it's what they 'should' be.

The GP who was reluctant to print out my test results was also the one who missed the low iron score. He also said to me "With vague symptoms - and yours are vague - it can take time to get to the bottom of them... And we've only had 12 minutes". That was me dismissed, and made to feel like a hyperchondriac. It may or may not have been a co-incidence that he was a man, and the more thoughtful GPs I saw were women.

It turned out I have other, more serious health problems that he missed too, because he didn't listen or think intelligently about the problem, and dismissed what I was telling him. I understand GPs aren't perfect, but ones like that let the profession down. We all need and deserve doctors who take us seriously. See someone else, DoIt.

mercibucket · 05/09/2013 12:54

hmmmm

yes, get the results printed and also the ranges

iron sounds like its worth looking into
did they test b12 as well btw?

Original poster

DoItTooJulia · 05/09/2013 13:30

No, GP said that if my iron was ok, my b12 would be too. He also said that if I ate a normal diet I would not be deficient in any nutrient.

This is almost worse than feeling shit. The not knowing and feeling fobbed off.

Thanks all, really appreciate you taking the time to post.

OP posts:

Orianne · 05/09/2013 17:57

Are you taking a Folic acid supplement?

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