When your symptoms are not easily identifiable by a blood test or other physical test....

[Anonymous]

Are there any MDs on? How are doctors expected to address these issues?

I've always found it odd that there are few symptom trackers used by doctors. I am seeing more of them here and there, but they are still relatively rare.

As example, I have gone to several endos for hypothyroidism; only one had an intake form that asked me to track my thyroid symptoms (e.g, fatigue, headaches, dry skin, hair loss, etc). The rest rarely asked about those things, and just sent me for blood tests.

Why is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any MDs on? How are doctors expected to address these issues?

I've always found it odd that there are few symptom trackers used by doctors. I am seeing more of them here and there, but they are still relatively rare.

As example, I have gone to several endos for hypothyroidism; only one had an intake form that asked me to track my thyroid symptoms (e.g, fatigue, headaches, dry skin, hair loss, etc). The rest rarely asked about those things, and just sent me for blood tests.

Why is that?

Maybe because those symptoms are vague and nonspecific to hypothyroidism. Whereas an elevated TSH is pretty specific to hypothyroidism.

[Anonymous]

In my experience, doctors rarely look at the intake forms anyway.

The best one I've been to knew nothing about the family member I accompanied when we entered his office except name, age, sex, and marital status.

Best diagnostician ever--he asked questions and actually listened to the answers. Also did a good 15 minutes of hands on exam.