Confusing Symptoms
Sometimes patients do not see their symptoms are being serious. Everyone gets some of these symptoms, some of the time. The key to understanding whether or not your symptoms could be related to Hypothyroidism is the consistently. Do you get headaches regularly? Are you always tired? Are you more tired than you used to be? You know your body best! If you feel that there has been a change or that how you feel is not normal, you should pursue medical treatment.
Patients sometimes don’t provide the doctors with a complete list of all their symptoms. Perhaps because the list of symptoms is too long. Or perhaps the symptoms seem too common, after all everyone is tired! Or perhaps they don’t want to complain too much. It is so important that when you go to the doctor you provide them with a complete description of what is wrong. Tell Your Doctor Everything!
Doctors sometimes focus on only a subset of the symptoms you provide them. As we mentioned before, the list is very long. Some of the symptoms are seem more serious to a doctor. They may focus on and treat those without trying to identify the underlying cause of your symptoms. It is important that you have all your symptoms evaluated, not just the ones that seem the most important!
Another possible reason for misdiagnosis is that your doctor may not recognize the symptoms. This could be because their education did not emphasize Hypothyroidism, or because the just lack experience. It is important to understand that your doctor can be WRONG! If you have persistent symptoms, you should see a different doctor, preferably an endocrinologist.
Also doctors misdiagnose Hypothyroidism because the symptoms overlap other conditions. Some of the symptoms overlap with excess stress or emotional depression (fatigue, depression, lethargy, heart palpitations, headaches…). Others mimic gynecological problems (heavy menstruation, irregular menstruation, PMS, fatigue…). It is actually easy to misdiagnose Hypothyroidism!
Whatever the cause for non-diagnosis or misdiagnosis, the patient must take action!
Patients sometimes don’t provide the doctors with a complete list of all their symptoms. Perhaps because the list of symptoms is too long. Or perhaps the symptoms seem too common, after all everyone is tired! Or perhaps they don’t want to complain too much. It is so important that when you go to the doctor you provide them with a complete description of what is wrong. Tell Your Doctor Everything!
Doctors sometimes focus on only a subset of the symptoms you provide them. As we mentioned before, the list is very long. Some of the symptoms are seem more serious to a doctor. They may focus on and treat those without trying to identify the underlying cause of your symptoms. It is important that you have all your symptoms evaluated, not just the ones that seem the most important!
Another possible reason for misdiagnosis is that your doctor may not recognize the symptoms. This could be because their education did not emphasize Hypothyroidism, or because the just lack experience. It is important to understand that your doctor can be WRONG! If you have persistent symptoms, you should see a different doctor, preferably an endocrinologist.
Also doctors misdiagnose Hypothyroidism because the symptoms overlap other conditions. Some of the symptoms overlap with excess stress or emotional depression (fatigue, depression, lethargy, heart palpitations, headaches…). Others mimic gynecological problems (heavy menstruation, irregular menstruation, PMS, fatigue…). It is actually easy to misdiagnose Hypothyroidism!
Whatever the cause for non-diagnosis or misdiagnosis, the patient must take action!