Should All Celiacs See Endocrinologists

[es2443]

My mom is wondering whether I should be seeing an endocrinologist. I feel fine (no problems other than reactions to gluten and soy protein) but she asked me yesterday if Celiacs go to them. As a precaution should I see an endocrinologist?

[Ursa Major]

Unless you have symptoms of hypo- or hyper thyroidism, or chronic fatigue which could indicate problems with your adrenal glands as well, or signs of diabetes, I see no good reason for seeing an endocrinologist.

[2kids4me]

As said in previous post, no unless you have an endocrine issue.

Celiac is an autoimmune condition - not an endocrine issue. Autoimmune conditions do occur more commonly in someone with another immune mediated illness, but it doesnt mean it will happen.

My children see an endocrinologist, but they both have endocrine issues - the celiac is addressed by a GI doc and he is aware of the link bnetween celiac and other conditions so he consults with the endo if he has questions about symptoms.

A GP can also test for conditions like thyroid, adrenal or diabetes and refer you if needed.

[ShayFL]

And even with symptoms, I found both Endocrinologists I saw COMPLETELY USELESS. Worse than regular doctors by far. When I was extremely hypthyroid and went to one, he said my labs were "normal" so I was fine. It was just stress. When I asked him why my body temperature was not even 97. He said you run cold. If you are every 98.6 then consider yourself to have a fever. I will not see one again. My doctor now knows more about our endocrine glands than those so called "specialists". My 2 cents....

[Tim-n-VA]

As usual with these anecdotes, we have only a short summary of the discussion but if your assessment of the doctor as a bad one is based only on his not worrying about a body temperature not being 98.6 than he is probably the well informed one.

An interesting article on this is at:

Open Original Shared Link

[ShayFL]

Those charts do not really tell us anything. Of course different studies will report different findings. Of course.

What I want to know is the status of every single person's thyroid in those studies. They say xxxx "healthy individuals". Yeah right!! What is "healthy"??

If you have dealt with hypothyroid and correlated it to your body temperature. And then with adequate treatment saw that closer to 98.6 gets rid of symptoms....you would understand. When my temp is 97 I cannot move from the bed. When it is above 98 I can move. When it is 98.6 - 99 I feel "normal". And this is the testimony of many hypothyroid patients. That doctor was bad. If not for his lack of text book experience, his clinical. There is a reason that hypothyroid individuals feel "cold" all of the time. They are.

[Tim-n-VA]

What the charts tell us is that there is no reason to accept as absolute fact that 98.6 is some special value. We don't know the status of every person's thyroid in any of the studies to include the ones years ago that lead to the establishment of 98.6 as normal. That is why it is the average temperature. Average is a statistical measure of the central tendency of the population. It is not a standard to where any deviation is significant. Both the general population and the medical profession sometimes look at it that way.

I stand by my conditional statement (that's a statement with an if) in my earlier post.

[ShayFL]

Look Im not going to argue with you. 97 degrees isnt normal. Especially if you are freezing in the heat of the Florida Summer. Male doctors tend to dismiss female patients. And I see a gender biased response in here too. When your temperature used to run close to 98.6 and it drops to barely 97 and you are freezing all of the time and your Endocrinologist says it is normal and if you are 98.6 you have a fever, he my friend is a complete and utter idiot. Especially when all it took for a "real doctor" to do was talk to me and assess my symptoms. Prescribe replacement therapy and wait for the good results. Which happened.

Most Endocrinologists are useless. You can go to one, but you have been warned. A good doctor that will actually listen to you is worth more than a million so called specialists.

[Tim-n-VA]

The possible link is that Celiac is an autoimmune disease. There are varients of thyroid disease and diabetes that are also autoimmune conditions. Therefore, a celiac should be monitored for thyroid and blood sugar but that doesn't mean an automatic referral to an endocrinologist.

It does sound as if ShayFL had a bad experience with an endocrinologist but that doesn't mean they are all worthless and that no one should see one. That is just dangerous advice and the only reason I've participated in this thread. Otherwise this thread could have end with the good advice from Ursa Major and 2kids4me.

[NicoleAJ]

There are reasons why some celiacs would want to see an endocrinologist. I was referred to one by my GI who is a celiac specialist because my osteopenia continues to get worse even with aggressive treatment. My husband and I are also thinking about children, so we need to know how long I should be off of osteopenia treatment before trying to conceive. These are questions that most GIs and PCPs are not prepared to answer.

[ShayFL]

It was never my intention to offend anyone. I apologize to anyone who has been offended by my verbiage in this thread. I have asked the moderators to remove any offensive posts. Perhaps my discontent with Doctors should be left off of this forum.