I'm at a dead end with diagnosis before I've even started :( advice please re: fatigue...

[KeepsAwayTheNargles]

I've been excessively tired for the past few months. If I have a busy day, the next day I'm totally wiped out. I work from home and can barely focus on it most days so that's suffering. I have basically zero sex drive - I can look at DH sometimes (or Kit Harrington...) and go "oooh, nice" but there's no motivation to do anything beyond that. I want to be able to focus on a book, I can't most days. I want to be able to do some yoga, I can't most days. I've dramatically improved my diet and started taking vitamins, which has made a marginal difference but not enough.

I had bloods taken last week which came back as normal, except for low vitamin D. When I had my initial GP appointment she said they'd test for everything physical via bloods, and if they were ok then we'd see if it was depression. I don't feel depressed, I feel frustrated and miserable that I'm so fucking tired. My work is suffering, my parenting is suffering (less patience) and my relationship is suffering - DH is lovely and patient but I want the energy and motivation for sex again!

I feel like because my bloods are normal I'm going to be given a choice of antidepressants or nothing. I'm not depressed. I'm frustrated and want some bloody energy to enjoy my life!

Does anyone have experience of this? Any ideas how I can avoid being fobbed off with ADs? I really thought the bloods would show something that could be easily fixed and now I feel like I'll be stuck like this forever :( any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance for getting through reading my mini-essay

I would ask for a print out of the results. There are 'normal' results and then there are 'optimal' ranges. also, you can see what the GP actually tested for. some things are not standard and may not have been tested for.

How old are you? That's how I felt at start of peri menopause at 36 - zero libido, knackered, and bloody annoyed.

Also hayfever makes me like this for a couple of months a year.

Have you looked at ME/Chronic Fatigue syndrome?

All the symptoms you are describing would match mines and I have been diagnised about a year ago.

Don't be fobbed off with the 'depression' diagnosis. You are not going to get better with ADs if you have ME!
If your GP really wants to go down that route, ask her WHY and which symptoms makes her think it is depression. It can NOT be 'well everything is OK physically so it has to be in your head' type of answer.

Have they considered ME/CFS

Snap!

Get a print out of the numbers! I had bloods done years ago, and I believe if I'd looked at the numbers and googled, I'd have realised that my thyroid level was borderline then, rather than put up with it gradually decreasing over years (without knowing) until I reached a crisis point.
It could be other things.

But certainly do keep going back and making a fuss.

So have been given vitamin D tablets? Mine was low and I felt rough, I expected to be told I was anaemic but it was the vitamin d. It's taken a couple of months but I can concentrate, aches & pains gone and deep tiredness gone. I already took multivitamins but obviously not enough D in them.

I was exactly like this. My doc initially put me on massive vitamin D doses but also carried on doing regular monthly blood tests and she spotted that my thyroid hormones were on the decline.

The vitamin D deficiency had caused my thyroid to pack up.

You need to keep a close eye on your results and get retested regularly. My thyroid levels were only borderline but we knew from the fact that they were declining that I was in the first stages of Hashimoto's.

3 months on and I feel like a new woman!

Disclaimer - I am in the Middle East with an American doctor and I would be willing to bet a million pounds that this wouldn't have been picked up under the NHS

3 years ago I was exactly the same. The only thing that came up on blood tests was low vitamin D, but none of the doctors I saw thought that was significant enough to be the problem. Eventually one decided it couldn't hurt to try supplementing it and lo and behold, after just the first dose I felt completely different!

I had a fairly large dose monthly at first and now 3-monthly. I notice if I'm just a few days late taking it, though. For some reason my body doesn't seem to store vitamin D, despite living in a sunny part of the world, so I'll have to supplement for life!

I have a follow up appointment on Friday so I may be offered a supplement then for the vit D. I'm told you can be depressed without feeling low - just tired and unmotivated and grumpy. Which I am.

I really want to ask for a print out particularly to check the Thyroid levels but I'm not sure I'll be assertive enough to even though my GP is lovely!

I have been depressed before but was also sad with that, although I did have reason to be then and I don't now.

I have low VIT D (16 should be 50) and Im honestly so exhausted!! it probably is a lot of the cause of how you are feeling x x

Thanks PoppitFox - I looked it up but its not listed as a symptom, hopefully that's it, you never know! Hope you're getting it sorted too :)

I had non anaemic iron deficiency

It doesnt show up on the standard iron blood test

Might be worth asking for that

Sounds like CFS, although supplementing your vitamins and minerals may just be what you need. A multi vitamin and mineral, plus Vit D3 and K2, maybe also magnesium.
The line to use is 'I'm not ill because I'm depressed, I's sad and grumpy because I am not well!

YY to that Annie

Unfortunately, it can be hard to have GPs understanding that.

I feel like this at totm. I think I'm probably nearing the menopause as well (I'm 45). I am supplementing with iron tablets I bought at the chemist and they do help a little bit. My iron came up borderline but they were reluctant to prescribe especially as it was slowly creeping up. I think it's mainly hormonal with me but I know I don't get quite enough sleep either which doesn't help and a lot of the daily stuff I do I don't enjoy either so could be boredom too.

Low vitamin D could easily explain and yes while under 50 is classed as low optimum should be 250. Mine was 12.8 and I felt terrible is now 198 which is much better is taken a year of high dose D3 supplements to get that high and I'll probably be on them for life now to. It has help but I've got other problems as well so not the total answer for me.

Is that the Ferritin one, Rufus? I wasn't officially anaemic but ferritin was on the low side but not clinically so.

www.healthline.com/health/vitamin-d-deficiency#1

Take vit D3 supplements. If the doc prescribes for you, take whatever they suggest; if they tell you to get over the counter ones, then start with a daily dose of 3000 IU to get your levels up.

The link I've given suggests that 4000 IU is the max you should take daily, but I'm not sure if they've missed out a 0 as vit D3 doesn't generally cause problems until 40,000 IU/d (which no one needs!)

It is important to include fat in your diet as well though (if you don't already) as vit D is a fat-soluble vitamin, and needs the fat to help absorption.

Ooh dont know

Mine was level 6, and it was my iron reserves that were the problem not my iron levels

Took medical iron supplements for three months and it went up to a decent level, retest in June

Felt so much better after two weeks ...

Yeah, that's your ferritin, Rufus - aka "iron stores". 6 isn't quite the lowest I've seen, but it's down there with the worst.

Thanks thumb

Everytime i said i was tired everyone just went...its your age...or ....everyone gets tired

But i didnt even have the energy to make one of my famous to do lists...let alone bloody do it [grjn]

I have the same problem!

I am always tired, too. I eat a balanced diet, I drink loads of water, I exercise regularly and I give myself plenty of time out but I find that I always feel the same. I wake up every morning feeling like I've had 3 hours sleep with the darkest circles underneath my eyes. It's so embarassing as people at work always used to say to me "You look shattered". Now they're used to it!

I had blood tests done 2 years ago and everything came back as ok. The Doctor asked me if I was depressed and I said no. I don't feel depressed or sad. I just feel tired and lacking in energy. He suggested I drink a glass of Berocca every morning and see if that would help.

Unfortunately I'm still the same now! I had just accepted that's just me, but more recently I've been having really intense phases of tiredness and I'm sure there's more to it :-(

I'm 28, btw! Having read the posts above I might give vitamin D tablets a whirl!

My exhaustion was the main reason they tested my Vit D xx

When i went to the doctor the first time he put it down to my underactive thyroid, i asked for an iron test (after reading thyroid threads on here) and he said no as it is fine on my results

And i said fair enough because they always test iron when i donate

He said to come back in 3/6 months (i forget which) and he would retest everything

Thats when the iron deficiceny came up (and my thyroid medicine was increased as well)

TOLD YOU I WAS TIRED

Fuck me did i feel vindicated (especially when i told MIL )