Wtf should I ask GP for

[Bunnyhair]

Something feels really out of whack on a systemic level. I've been tackling individual symptoms for years (HRT, iron tablets, AdHD meds, antidepressants) but I'm at a tipping point now where I feel like my body is urgently running out of something.

Help me formulate what I want my GP to investigate.

I'm 47.

I get migraines 2 x a month that last 3-4 days and involve extreme fatigue & confusion (but no vomiting or visual stuff)

Terrible brain fog where I often cannot remember what day it is or what months we're in, constantly losing things

I used to be able to do bodypump 3 x a week but over the past year any kind of excercise wipes me out for days - as in, I feel like I can hardly function with exhaustion.

Hemoglobin low end of normal ref range, ferritin around 50 after 4 months of iron supplementation

B12 & vit D levels fine after 4 months' supplementation

TSH normal but T3 and T4 both at very low end of reference range. No thyroid antibodies.

Blood pressure always low

Feel freezing all the time to the point where my skin actually stings like I'm covered in Vicks

Sometimes leak colostrum from my nipples even though I last breastfed 6 years ago

I eat about 3-4k calories a day and always feel ravenously hungry but have always been normal BMI (and quite underweight as a child)

Something is not right! Is it secondary hypothyroid? Silent coeliac? Brain tumour? Worms??

Where do I start getting the GP to take this seriously and not just telling me to meditate and get plenty of fresh air?

Coeliac disease? Menopause?

I’m on HRT for menopause stuff already. I’ll ask about coeliac. Shoukd I ask for pituitary hormones to be checked though?

I would ask for anything you can persuade them to do. Full blood count, coeliac, thyroid, CA125 (cancer), inflammation levels, autoimmune, bone panel, magnesium. At your age a major cause of anaemia is heavy periods, so that might be the explanation if that’s an issue you have.

I'd write that list down and show it to them

Just an update in case anyone also has these symptoms in future & wonders what’s going on.

All my bloods came back bang in the middle of the normal range apart from ferritin which was at 20. Which counts as iron deficiency in the range my GP was using.

Justt off to find out how to raise this given that I’ve been on high doses of iron for 6 months and my ferritin has actually gone down in that time 🤔

Maybe you don’t absorb it. I had iron through a drip in pregnancy.

What type, dose and regimen of iron have you been taking?

OP did they test you for coeliac? It’s one of the major causes of low iron because it prevents you absorbing it properly.

@Serrates they did a blood test for coeliac which was negative. I went gluten free for several months last year and had no ill effects when I went back on the gluten, which gave me the sense I probably don’t have coeliac.

@MrsMikeHeck I was taking 36mg heme iron + high strength vit c. But am now going to start the iron protocol. Time to get out the big guns.

I don’t have heavy periods so no idea why my ferritin is decreasing like this. I was reassured though that the rest of my results were normal (which presumably they wouldn’t be if I had some horrendous bleeding ulcer).

In desperation I went to an acupuncturist a while back (who was a GP in China before coming to the UK). She was convinced I had weak stomach acid. Which would make some sense I suppose. How she gleaned this by looking at my tongue and taking my pulse is beyond me - but I’ll take some digestive enzymes to see if that helps at all.

"TSH normal but T3 and T4 both at very low end of reference range. No thyroid antibodies."

So, TSH within the reference range, maybe under 2, and actual thyroid hormones in range, but towards the bottom?

Sounds as if your pituitary is slowing down and isn't producing the hormone (TSH) that stimulates the thyroid to produce T4, resulting in low T4, subsequently low T3 and all sorts of symptoms like the ones you describe.

Time to read up on secondary hypothyroidism and ask for a referral to an endocrinologist.

NB I speak from personal experience.

I'd be looking at leaky gut things.

So have a look at the info on improving your gut microbiome. I've found cutting out all the emulsifiers, etc has been great. It's a work over time but if you have adhd, you are very likely to have digestive issues. I thought it was dairy or gluten for myself for years but it's processed food.

Defo get the iron up, low dose every other day, not with tea or coffee.