Could These Symptoms Be Celiac Disease?

[shauna242]

Hi

I'm a 19 year old female and I'm extremely tired of feeling sick.

Years ago I was diagnosed with Anemia and for a while it was under control but now I am in my first year of University and my levels have dropped quite a bit. I have been on every kind of oral iron treatment imaginable and yet nothing works. My anemia is unexplained. So I am going to go see a hematologist. However this is not my only symptom. I also have pretty bad abdominal pain that ranges from being piercing to just feeling like there is pressure in my abdomen. I also have some bad chest pains once in a while. Lately I have noticed that after eating i really don't feel well, I feel slightly nauseous. I also get a lot of headaches. Mostly I'm just exhausted all the time and I'm sure you can imagine how inconvenient that is when trying to get through your first year of University. The only thing is... I don't really fit the usual description of someone with celiac disease. I am pretty overweight 5'4" and 200lbs (probably from sleeping all the time cause I'm so tired) and I am not of European decent, because of these things I'm not sure if my doctor will even want to test me. However I am at the end of my rope. I am out of ideas and will try anything to start feeling better.

If anyone has some advice that would be great!

[GFinDC]

Does the University have a clinic where you can get tested? The blood gliaden antibody tests are a good way to start. Your symptoms do sound like they could be celiac or gluten intolerance. If you want to get tested though you need to stay on gluten until the testing is done. Unfortunately though the tests are not perfect. They work well for positive results but negative results are sometimes false. So, it is not a bad idea to go ahead and give the gluten-free diet a trial of a month or 2 after the testing if you get a negative test result.

If you go off gluten and want to be tested later, that you will need to resume eating gluten for 6 weeks or more so the antibodies will buildup to detectable levels. Also, resuming eating gluten after being off it for a while can be stressful on the body (and hurt). The reactions can be more intense after being off gluten than before.