How do you find a doctor who follows the new AACE guidelines?

[songstress25]

I'm a female in my mid-20's and have struggled with issues of tiredness, cold hands and feet, muscle aches, depression, irregular heartbeat and general sluggishness on and off since my early teens.
I've been to a myriad of family physicians and internists, but none of them have been able to find anything wrong according to my TSH tests (which have been as high as in the 5's).  I have a strong family history of hypothyroidism (my great grandmother, great aunt, grandmother, grandfather, and mother).  I have a hard time regulating my body temperature and often wear sweaters and sweatshirts when everyone else complains that it is too hot.  At one doctor's appointment, my feet turned blue and were ice cold while I was sitting in the normal-temperature exam room.  The doctor gathered his nurses around and they all said they'd never seen anything like it, but he didn't do anything beyond that. The same doctor put me on antidepressants which I used for 3 months without any benefit.

My most recent test for TSH came back a 3.53 and my Free T4 was 0.77.  According to the new guidelines by the AACE, a TSH over 3.0 signals hypothyroid (or subclinical hypothyroidism).  The low end of the range for Free T4 is 0.7, and mine was only slightly above the lower threshold.

I'm getting frustrated after nearly ten years of feeling tired all the time and like I'm operating at 50%. I'm also frustrated because I've been told it's "nothing" or that I'm just "sensitive" or "depressed."

How do I find a doctor who will listen and help me get to the bottom of these problems?

Thank you in advance for whatever help or advice you can give!

[songstress25]

Thanks for your support and the good comments.  After a little more research, I found a doctor who aggressively treats hypothyroid.  I'm hoping to make an appointment with him and see what happens!

Thanks again.

[ChitChatNine]

This is tough .. I feel for you bcz I was brushed off by everybody as peri-menopause with TSH of 2.8 and myriad of symptoms including anxiety !!!!  Then after my surgery and I ended up on Synthroid and my TSH moved chemically down to 1.3 ALL THE SYMPTOMS are gone .... so hindsight being 20/20 they now say, "oh yeah, look @ that!" ......  So I think what you are doing is a great idea .... the new lab #'s make much more sense to people like me who had symtpoms ignored at the 3.0 level .. btw, my family doc even went as far as to tell me that "when things are wrong after age 40 women tend to blame it all on their thyroids!!!"  grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  Not sureof your age so not saying you are in the same age as me, but wanted to share wtih you and say HELLO & WELCOME to the board!

Cheryl

[utahmomma]

This is the link for AACE's chapter chairs:

http://www.aace.com/membership/chapters/listings.php

Maybe you could contact the chapter chair(s) in your area and ask for a list of doctors.

[AR-10]

Luck of the draw, I'm afraid.

You could call every Endo in the area and ask the office personel what lab ranges they use, but the office people may not know. You could ask to speak to the Endos' nurses, but that may not happen.

Doctor shopping is very frustrating.

Have you had antibody tests run?