Re: My RE does not have a clue - frustrated!
From: summer (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Sun Jun 29 21:46:43 2008
Mary Shomon has some great info, I'd never seen these pages before (I
take some of these)
http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/medicinecabinet.htm
http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/diethelp.htm
At Sun, 29 Jun 2008, Terese wrote:
>
>Okay, so I have had endo for quite some time now. I have severe pain
>and can't get pregnant. I have had 2 laps, both of which have not
>helped with pain. In addition to endo symptoms, I have had a number of
>other weird symptoms like 2-3 weeks straight of bleeding (like an
>extremly long period), my hair falls out like crazy, at one point my
>breasts shrunk down about 1/2 my size (that freaked me out), my
>progesterone is low, my testerone is slightly elevated, I'm cold all of
>the time and I have other odd symptoms as well. I explained all of this
>to my reproductive endocrinologist, but his only concern was putting me
>on clomid or doing in-vitro. He was not concerned at all with all of my
>symptoms.
>
>Before jumping into all of these costly and possibly unecessary
>fertility treatments, I asked him to do a thyroid panel. He refused to
>do a full thyroid panel, but did test my TSH. The TSH came back high
>and he didn't even say anything about it! I asked for a copy of my test
>results and found out on my own. During my last appointment, I brought
>my TSH level up and the nurse practitioner (since my lap, the the nurse
>has been seeing me instead) and she tried telling me it was "normal".
>Luckily, I had articles and books that specifically talk about TSH
>levels (what is high and low) and how it impacts infertility. I
>presented all of this information to her, she looked shocked and
>uncomfortable. She excused herself and when she came back she said that
>she was going to have refer me to an endocrinologist. I mentioned that
>the doctor was a reproductive endocrinologist and I thought that he
>would be able to help me. She said that the thyroid was not his area of
>practice! Hello, if he is a fertility expert wouldn't you think that he
>should know about other issues/symptoms that impact ferility?
>
>So anyway, I'm going to see another doctor about my thyroid as well as
>some of my other hormone levels that are not right. I have done a lot
>of reading on the thyroid and how women with endometriosis are at higher
>risk for thyroid problems. What it has come down to is ME doing all of
>the reading and finding things on my own! It seems as though I have not
>had any doctors care enough to look at the root of the problem.
>
>Have any of you ladies with endo had issues with your thyroid? If so,
>who has been able to help treat you? I am hoping that this new doctor
>that I see next week can have an answer to my problems. I'm just tired
>of wasting my time with useless doctors!
![[ endo@obgyn.net ]](../../images/endo_at_obgyn.gif)