Posted by KaraS on February 17, 2005, at 17:57:05
In reply to Possible thyroid problem - thyroid antibodies?, posted by Sarah T. on February 16, 2005, at 23:42:02
> How do I get my doctor to test me for thyroid antibodies? My thyroid tests (T3, T4 and TSH) have been mostly normal, although the TSH has fluctuated a lot, but I have several symptoms of hypothyroidism including increasing hair loss over the past few months, very brittle nails, puffiness in my face especially in the morning, and worsening constipation. I feel as if my brain is not the same brain I had 7 or 8 months ago. My thinking is dulled and much slower than it used to be. I never feel well anymore. This started quite precipitously in mid-June and worsened, again quite suddently, in late September. Do I have to go bald before doctors take me seriously and do more extensive tests? I welcome any suggestions for dealing with these doctors.
I can't believe they won't give you a basic antibody test. It's so standard for hypothyroidism. I wish I could tell you what would work to convince the doctors. Sometimes you can get your own tests done through the mail. The don't cost all that much. Have you checked out Mary Shomon's thyroid site on about.com? There's a lot of great info there and some of it pertains to tests. Although, even if you find out that you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, your treatment wouldn't change. One thing you should make sure of (if you haven't already) is that your test results are normal for the revised limits. It appears that some doctors still go by the old standards which consider a TSH as high as 5 to be normal. There's still so much we don't know about the thyroid and how it interacts with many of the other hormones in the body. I have Hashimotos and I have been treated adequately according to the test results (although I'm overdue to be restested - my last set of tests were all normal), yet I'm always cold. There are too many people out there who are supposedly well by their doctor's standards who still are symptomatic by their own standards. I find that I do better on natural hormone (Armour thyroid) but that doesn't solve all of the problems either.
poster:KaraS
thread:459121
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20050105/msgs/459513.html