Why Won’t My Doctor Order These Labs?
The honest truth: I don’t know. Maybe fear of malpractice claims? Lack of education? Stuck in their ways?
Just this week I had another story from a client about being dismissed by her doctor. Her mom had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer so she wanted to do a “full work up”, which could be a number of things, but she wanted to include all her thyroid labs. I think that is smart since thyroid health is important to overall health. It doesn’t mean that if you have a thyroid issue that you’re automatically at higher risk for cancer, but autoimmune diseases do increase your risk for other diagnoses due to inflammation and the immune response (your body is essentially attacking itself).
This particular client shared that her doctor said it was unnecessary. “You’re fine!” A very common response to many (female) patients from the stories I have heard. Maybe the doctor is trying to save some psychological stress, but knowledge is power and thyroid health is foundational so it’s so confusing to me why it can be so hard to get a full thyroid panel.
Side note: A full thyroid panel is TSH, T4, T3, Reverse T3 and antibodies. Again, most will only order TSH which is like just checking if the check engine light is on.The TSH is a signal something is going on with the thyroid if it’s too high or too low but it doesn’t tell us WHY. So if you do have a high TSH, oftentimes you will be prescribed a thyroid medication which may or may not be helpful.
And it’s sad that I hear these stories all the time. ALL the time. I do think it’s fair to say not all doctors are like this. There are good and bad in all professions and you just have to keep advocating for your health to find that perfect fit.
So if you do find yourself being dismissed by your doctor, I highly encourage you to find a second opinion or maybe find a different practitioner altogether. Maybe it’s a natro path, NP, dietitian or a certified nutritionist. Someone who is willing to treat the person and not just the paper.
