Hiya
Sorry it's taken me a few days to come back to you. Definitely sort out your iron, your GP won't help you, so I'd take that matter into your own hands. I do my own blood tests privately and I had a private iron infusion in London, I also have learnt all I can and make sure I take the right kind of supplements that don't wreck my gut in the right amounts.
In your shoes I'd perhaps research who it is you want to see, and then strategise how to get there - you need to be under someone's wing. My life has been in the hands of endos for the last ten years, I can tell you honestly most of them are monsters, it's a barbaric discipline and I doubt you'd get any help. There are some good ones but very hard to find. You need a full thyroid panel TSH, FT3 and FT4, and your antibodies testing, as that is probably the cause of your low SHBG. I have high SHBG but I'm TSH suppressed following thyroid cancer and take suppressive doses of T3 (ie my TSH is so low the machine can't read it, as it's meant to be to stop the cancer coming back). I have given up with GPs and mainstream endos, I buy my own drugs from the States and I treat myself, and I pop in with a Harley St private endo if I need something, I go to one annual NHS apt for my cancer monitoring and tell them as little as humanly possible. I also see a private gynae (Nick Panay's clinic) as the NHS is never coming near my hormones ever again!!
This all makes me sound rich, I'm not, I'd rather go without other things and be in charge of my health, I'm sick of being neglected, patronised, talked over, talked down to, not listened to, and written off as neurotic. I know this is an unpopular opinion but I think the NHS is a dreadful, bloated, inefficient, utterly rubbish service, it's third world, I honestly don't understand why we are so grateful for such terrible care, I'd happily burn the whole lot down tomorrow! Other European countries have much better systems. Anyway, I'm ranting. The short version: take control. Start researching, work out where you need to get to, and how you are going to get there. Sometimes one private consult, and one letter back to the GP is enough to kick some arse, but kick arse you are going to have to do I reckon! Even one assertive (but never angry, that won't help) 'I'm a busy woman with a career, a home, and a life to lead, it's unacceptable that no action is being taken to help me with these debilitating symptoms etc' can galvanise a recalcitrant GP.
However, I think you'd have a massive improvement in symptoms if you sorted out your iron. It's extremely poorly understood in primary care (I assume because most people suffering iron deficiency are women, and nobody really gives a damn about us).
Apologies if I sound cynical, that's because I am! Haha.
Reb
x
Author
Topic: How do I ask GP for a referral - feel awful and SHBG result (Read 1914 times)