Posted by katekite on July 24, 2002, at 20:34:46
In reply to Re: estrogen - hildi, posted by katekite on July 21, 2002, at 21:10:18
There is really no need to read this, I just had to vent somewhere. I should probably post this in 'social' but it's already written.
I saw a endocrinologist today. She supposedly sees people with menopause. She sounded promising because her research deals with the interaction between growth hormone and estrogen. (ie something with estrogen).
She did not know that estrogen varied over the day. She had heard that FSH was higher at night (well duh, if FSH goes up estrogen does (with a delay so that it is highest when we get up).) And she had to think hard for the high FSH at night idea.
She could not name a testosterone replacement other than Estratest. She said if I took any testosterone I would (not maybe, would) grow extra hair (virtually no one does.) and was uninterested in looking up how to prescribe it for me in forms other than Estratest.
She put forth the idea that I might have an advanced malignant tumor (for the last 9 months?) causing the flushing (despite extremely normal chest xrays, abdominal CT, ESR etc). Only when I said I did not have diarrhea did she give up with that idea. I had to volunteer that I did not have diarrhea, she didn't ask. Come to think of it she had very few questions.
Next was the idea that I have mini-seizures causing the hot flashes. Except, oh look, a normal EEG. (and I think, hmmm why would 200 hot flash seizures a day respond completely to estrogen?)
Her diagnosis of my menopause-type symptoms was that the one seizure I had at 16, after being kicked by a horse in the chest, killed neurons in my hypothalamus that control temperature regulation and thus I have hot flashes starting 15 years later. She thinks that estrogen may have a stabilizing force and that if it helps I should continue to take it, but she doubts it makes that much difference. "The Pill is harmless enough."
I am not in peri-menopause, she says, because I'm too young and my FSH was normal and my periods still exist.
Of course, this diagnosis does not explain the months of breast swelling and tenderness, the fatigue, the mood changes, the acne, the shorter more irregular periods, the tan-without-sun, the muscle weakness, the memory problems, or any other of the things I've had. It certainly gives no explanation for high cortisol.
Rather than consider an uncommon presentation of a common disorder she found a spotted zebra and tried to ride it.
What a loser. She jumped to conclusions. She obviously made not even a mental problem list. She made no attempt to discuss the objective findings. She left the appointment early without providing for either followup or referral.
She must do fantastic research because she has no clinical skills. She is employed by an institution that rated top 10 for endocrinology this year.
I waited two months to see her. It would have been ok if she said, "I don't know." What is so wrong with those words? Instead she made a total and complete fool of herself. I understand that doctors can't know everything. But how about suggesting a test or two, or someone else who might know the field more? Even complete idiots can do medicine if they follow the rules.
There are so many things I resent that I can't even list them.
Aaahhh, that felt good to say!
poster:katekite
thread:112658
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113590.html