How many times would you visit the GP before giving up?

[Catk34]

I’ve been 10 times in the last 3 months.
I have a list of symptoms as long as my arm. Ranging from daily blood crusting in my nose, ear pain, loose bowel movements, joint pain, rashes, itchy skin, lump in throat feeling…and more
Basically nothing that really points to anything specific. I’ve had blood taken, which hasn’t really shown up anything significant and it gets left at that.
i have had a referral to ENT, but it’s an 18 month wait.
I get told things like ‘hormones’ (even though they haven’t checked my hormones) or ‘you’ll just be tired coz you have a baby’ (I’m not)

I really feel like I’m at a dead end now. I’m so exhausted from it all. The mental load of feeling and knowing something is wrong but not knowing how to get help. The constant appointments taking time out of my life but getting no further at getting an answer. Or just the insane waiting times.

I feel now that I’ve officially given up and will just wait until either - 1. Everything eventually gets better or 2. Everything eventually gets worse

Have they done bit D testers Pauling has been really suffering a range of different things and they have only just discovered that her Vitamin D levels are through the floor and she has osteomalacia.

Iron and b12 were done and came back normal.
Thyroid hasn’t been done. The lump in my throat feeling and croaky voice was determined to be related to my nose and ear issues which I’m on an 18 month waiting list to ENT. And even though I’m 9 months PP which I believe can often come with thyroid issues, they don’t believe it to be necessary.
my health centre has a reputation for being awful - I know of 3 people personally who ended up having cancer that took a very long time to be diagnosed - 2 died very soon after their diagnosis, 1 is thankfully back to full health.
but the ‘normal’ blood results brought them to a dead end with their gp . Only when they were so ill that it was too late that any investigation was done.This is where I have a concern
in response to a previous comment - I don’t see them as my own personal service, in 35 years I have only been to see them on a handful of occasions for tonsillitis or a uti. Also I pay taxes and it’s literally their job - which my taxes pay - to investigate. I have as much right to use the service as anyone ekse

OP, you've not addressed any of the questions about your diet, sleep and whether you take any supplements? It's really surprising how much different a good multi-vitamin can make, and you should be taking Vitamin D daily by default if you live in England anyway.

That's not to say your concerns shouldn't be addressed but there are a lot of lifestyle changes people can often make as well to improve things.

You said your blood levels are normal but have you checked how close to the lab ranges they were?
b12 for me was a few numbers away from lower end of scales for a few years and Drs wouldn’t do anything (it did go down below so did eventually get b12 injections)

The receptionists don’t tell us number’s they just say normal or satisfactory.
my WBC was abnormal ( low) but the gp marked it as ‘satisfactory’ and kidney function also abnormal but also marked as satisfactory- meaning they are satisfied that there is nothing of concern, so what I do now im not sure.

I assume you're ignoring the questions about diet, sleep and supplements for a reason.

I've had all of these symptoms post- partum. Blood in nose - bedroom air too hot and dry.
Joint pain - standard for up to 2 years after birth.
Loose stools and lump in throat - physical manifestation of stress after having baby.
Earache - sinus pain related because of warm house due to baby.
Lack of sleep making everything worse too.
It all came physically good for me about 2 years into motherhood.
I'm not saying there isn't something more afoot just that I can see why you're being dismissed with your symptoms as they are fairly common.

Also, are you breast feeding, Op? You could be dehydrated causing kidney function to be a bit off. I had the same.

Autoimmune.

I mentioned this on another thread this morning, but I really recommend getting your vit D levels checked if they haven't already done so. After BFing, mine were awful and I felt so bad. Could barely move my fingers on a morning, felt worried about arthritis. The GP asked me to take 2000ui vit D per day and go back to repeat bloods and I felt loads better after a few weeks and an unbelievable difference after a few months. Ask for the specific numbers (or register for the NHS app and it will show on there) - then at least whilst pursuing other referrals, if they are technically "normal" but still on the low end, you can up your supplements whilst waiting for the ENT referral.

If you sign up for the NHS app you should be able to see your test results - you might need a code or something from your GP if you haven't got it set up already.

My diet is good - was better pre baby but now time makes it a bit more difficult to eat as well as I used to.
I have been taking a daily multivitamin ever since I fell pregnant in 2024 and still do as I’m breastfeeding. My postnatal vitamins also contain an omega 3 supplement.

Unfortunately I don’t think we have this service in Scotland :(

Assuming it's different GPs each time and they are all trying to fob you off I would start looking into their complaints procedure and if necessary escalating to the health ombudsman. Process won't be fast but even the mention of the ombudsman might mean you get someone to take it more seriously (I've gone this route and it worked).

Also appreciate not everyone can but consider a priviate med appt as they can push for a faster NHS specialist review potentially.

I‘m going to come at this from a slightly different perspective. Having grown up in the UK and seeing various members of my family die because of GPs refusing to investigate symptoms, I‘m now in a country with social health insurance (you pay a fee each month, the amount paid depends purely on your income, poorer people and dependent kids pay nothing). In this country I would very much expect a doctor to take action for those symptoms, because I pay quite a lot for it so there‘s less stress on the system.

And yet doctors here are equally prone to medical misogyny when it comes to treating women with a raft of diverse symptoms, and equally reluctant to take endocrinological issues seriously. A few years back I had diverse symptoms and ultimately self-referred to an endocrinologist (covered by my insurance), various scans later I had my thyroid removed because a lump (yes, that lump in my throat I had felt for years) was pre-cancerous and clearly functioning badly. Luckily in ny country there was virtually no waiting list for the operation.

So my advice would be: just accept that the NHS now only really treats serious emergencies and easily diagnosable conditions and for everything else you need to go private. Use money that would otherwise go on a holiday. In future, people will probably need to put aside a sum for private healthcare every month - either as insurance premiums (excluding preexisting conditions) or for occasional consultations :-(. And if you can’t afford that, well, you get 2nd class healthcare. It’s absolutely tragic, and the very opposite of what the NHS was set up to achieve.

Go to an endocrinologist and ask for full thyroid, ferritin and B12 tests - the things GPs notoriously ignore. Ask if the results are optimal, or more like borderline. If your ferritin is low you might ultimately need a private iron infusion.

Also be aware that dropping oestrogen levels in peri can also affect your thyroid levels - I have absolute proof of this over the last year, when going on HRT resolved my levothyroxine instability.

You need to be taking a Vitamin D supplement every single day - everyone in England should be doing that routinely no matter how healthy they are.

In terms of diet and sleep, I don't think people realise how important both things are to keeping your body in good shape. I know it's hard with a baby but I would bet good money on a lot of your issues being down to your breastfeeding and recovering from labour.

Ask the receptionist for a print out of your results and check it out online. Then see the GP again. If no luck see the Practice Manager and complain

They need to check your thyroid at the very least, it’s incredibly common post partum, other autoimmune conditions too. Sometimes it’s only picked up when you’re struggling to conceive a second child. I would ask for a second opinion, failing that, do you have a private gp through work or anything?

Oh yes I also take vitamin d - I didn’t realise I hadn’t mentioned that.
sleep is poor - but sadly can’t do much about that at the moment:/

I had a mysterious illness a few years ago. I phoned up the GP and said I was no better. The GP said "there's nothing more I can do to help. Bye." And with that she slammed the phone down. I was absolutely furious and changed to a different surgery that day. I saw a GP at the new surgery. She didn't know what my problem was either but suggested referring my to a consultant at one of the bog London hospitals for a second opinion. Tbe consultant referred me to another consultant in that hospital and the second one referred me to a third one. That third one actually knew what was wrong with me and was able to offer me some very simple treatment which was a total success.

The moral of my story is that it is worth persevering even though it is slog. You'll get there in the be end.

I had all of those symptoms when I lived in the UK, I moved to a drier country and they have vanished except for the joint pain, I developed arthirits when pregnant so I'm stuck with that. I think for me it was down to living in quite a damp and poorly insulated house. I always woke up feeling like I had a cold with a lump in my throat. My house wasn't moldy or anything, but it was damp and the outside air was always damp, regardless of season. Funnily enough, my dog had very similar symptoms and he also got a lot better after we moved and he could stop with his medication. The vet said we would probably get better once we moved since we both seemed to react to mold spores in the air and because the UK doesn't properly freeze in the winter it's just everywhere. She was right.

My GP is ducking useless. I got diagnosed privately in the end and yes it was serious and required a major operation which I then had on the NHS and after that I had a private iron transfusion as my GP kept giving me iron pills which I don't absorb properly. due to my coeliac disease.
I spent around 4k altogether including tests.
My GP couldn't care less and makes it obvious. Ive had to direct all my own treatment which has been exhausting.
If I hadn't I would have been left permanently disabled and I would have lost my house and my job.
I went in to discuss this afterwards and he showed zero shame or remorse and there was no apology.

You have an ENT referral which is presumably for the blood/nose/throat issues.

re the stools, most GPs won’t care unless there is blood in which case they’ll look at cancer. I have iBS and honestly once you are diagnosed it’s up to you to work out what your bowels don’t like and don’t eat it.

I started excluding some stuff - there’s a list of the most common intolerances somewhere which is basically caffeine, lactose, wheat (gluten), citrus.
start excluding stuff and see how your body reacts.

for the ENT referral, if you want to be seen quicker go private. Your gp can write a letter asking you be seen quicker but I think hospitals mostly just bin them and work to their own priorities anyway

The change in bowel movements alone should warrant further investigation quite quickly. I’d go back and really focus on that and see if you can get a quick referral.

As others have said unfortunately you either complain and be more pushy (I would be) or you go private. I wouldn’t mess about with your health.

yes I think I had come to the conclusion that unless it either obvious or an emergency I’m probably not going to get anywhere…
After I had my baby my blood pressure started rising and over the days I was in hospital I queried it several times but was just told they were not concerned as it’s common for BP to rise postpartum. After a few days it was sitting at 170/95. At this point they gave me 1 blood pressure tablet and redid it an hour later. It was normal and they discharged me.
of course once that tablet wore off it went up again. I had to go to triage middle of the night as it was 200/110.
The midwife I spoke to on the phone was looking through my notes and said she couldn’t understand why I was sent home without a prescription. I had to leave my days old baby at home and head back to the hospital in the early hours. I couldn’t understand how it was so obvious to me but not to the drs and midwives that I needed medication