Getting Blood Work Done Tomorrow!

melee18 · 08-21-2008, 08:27 PM

Finally went to an endo last week to try and dig a little deeper into what's been going on with my body. See my original post for more details: Went to the Gyno Today - Frustrated

My mom actually worked with this endo at her old job and said she see's a fair number of people with PCOS. The nurse practioner saw me first and asked me lots of questions about my symptoms. Then she ordered the following blood work:

TSH
Testosterone Total
Testosterone Free/Weakly Bound
Prolactin
Insulin
IFG 1
Free T4
Fasting Lipid Profile
FSH, LH
DHEAS
Complete Metabolic Panel
Complete blood count
Anti-Thyroglobulin Ab
Anti-Peroxidase Ab
24 hour urine free cortisol and creatinine
17 hydroxyprogesterone
2 hour 75 gram glucose tolerance test with 0,1,2 hour insulin and glucose levels

Then the endo came in and said "I think we'll be able to get a better idea of what's going on once the blood work comes back". She asked me how I felt about possibly going back on the pill to control my acne. I told her I'd give it some thought.

Made two appointments this weekend at the lab. Tomorrow I go for the blood work and Saturday will be the glucose tolerance test. I need to find out the particulars of the 24 urine test and figure out when to fit that in.

God I hate needles/doctors/blood but I keep telling myself this is for the best!

sarah2747 · 08-21-2008, 10:38 PM

I hope you get somewhere with this Dr.

I am looking for someone who'll be equally as thorough with me. Not sure if I should ask for a referral to an endo from my gyno...

Good luck! I hope you finally get answers.

Eva37 · 08-22-2008, 11:33 AM

all the best for your dr visit.

i find that if i drink a few glasses of water before blood tests, the needles go in easier.

Rainbow Brite · 08-26-2008, 05:16 PM

Good luck!! I look forward to hearing your results

melee18 · 09-02-2008, 08:30 PM

Still waiting for the results ladies. The blood work went fairly smoothly - I thought I did pretty well considering how much blood they took (six of the big tubes and six little tubes). Even the nurse seemed impressed! Thanks for the tip about the water Eva - I made sure to drink two big glasses before I left the house and the needles seemed to go in ok.

My doctor's office said they would send out letters with my results as they came in. It's been almost a week and a half since I had it done. Still haven't heard anything. If I don't hear anything this week, I'm going to give them a call.

Any ideas on how long it takes to get blood work results?

Tweety26 · 09-07-2008, 04:04 AM

I am a newbie to PCOS. I was dx with it after pushing my NP to test me for it. She ran very similiar tests to those listed by Melee18 but ran my FSH/LH a second time to confirm (they were out of whack each time). She referred me to a OB/GYN and RE and left it up to me to decide which one to go to. I decided on RE and he ran all the tests Melee18 listed. This was done this week. I was advised to give hime 2 weeks to recieve the lab results and review them. Luckily, the health system he is affliated with posts he lab results online so I can see them before he calls me.

melee18 · 09-11-2008, 10:49 PM

Well the nurse practitioner called me at work today - all of my blood work is finally in.

She said all my test came back normal. No excessive hormone levels. No glucose out of whack. The only thing that was high was my cholesterol (259 - the highest I've ever had - 151 bad cholesterol). The last time I had my cholesterol check was about a year and a half ago - it was 217.

The endo is recommending a low fat diet to get the cholesterol down and going back on the pill to get rid of the acne. They don't think I have PCOS.

Not sure what to make of all of this. I feel like we're missing something here. I have the following symptoms:

1. Weight gain around the middle - 20 pounds since last year. Very hard to lose weight even with diet and exercise.

2. Acne all over my face but mostly on the jawline - benzoyl peroxide worked for my teenage acne, but won't make a dent on this new stuff. The only thing that has helped is saw palmetto. Also I was clear on the pill.

3. Some extra hair growth - on my feet, butt, stomach, side burns, arms & hands, bikini line. Nothing terribly noticeable that I can't deal with, but I seem to need to shave every few weeks.

4. Irregular periods - it's been a while since I've skipped one, but they are all over the place. Some months its 24 days, others it 36. Hard to predict even though they do come on their own.

5. Painful cysts on my left ovary - the come and go with the cycles, but very annoying and affect my posture.

6. High cholesterol - growing up it was always under control, but now it seems to be getting worse.

7. Hot flashes & some mood swings, depression - minor but seem to be more common now that I'm off the pill.

This isn't all in my head right? I know I'm a thin cyster and some of these symptoms are very mild compared to what some of you go through. But this is my body and it feels dysfunctional to me....

I haven't actually spoken to the nurse practitioner or doctor yet - found all this out via voicemail. I'm requesting copies of the lab results so I can see the actual numbers.

Biggest concern at the moment is that I won't be able to try out Met. I was really hoping they would at least try Met to see if it made a difference. For the moment, going to stick with the saw palmetto as the acne seems to be responding to it and it's not as pricey as birth control pills.

Thoughts ladies? Another round of doctors or what???

Tweety26 · 09-12-2008, 12:42 PM

Melee18- You know your body better than any doctor. If you think that there is a problem, I would suggest another opinion. From what I have read and through my own exeperience, it seems that doctors forget that every person is different. We are not going to have the same symptoms but it doens't mean you don't have PCOS. Listen to your body and your head.

I am still waiting on my RE to call with my lab results. Thankfully though, I am able to view most of them online even before he calls me. The unfortunate/fortunate (depending on how you look at it) I got me glucose, insulin, LH/FSH and testerone levels back. Everything but the glucose is out of whack. I am trying to stay positive about it all but can't help but be anxious. I will be so glad when my doctor calls. He has already rx Femara, but now I wonder if he will add the Met as well, since it looks as though I am IR.

Rainbow Brite · 09-12-2008, 01:08 PM

Maybe printing out a copy of this and bringing it to your doctor would convince him to at least let you try Metformin?

Metformin improves PCOS symptoms irrespective of pre-treatment insulin resistance

It's a very safe drug from what I've read - wouldn't hurt a non-IR person to take it. If you get no benefit from it, then you stop. Simple as that. If he can't understand that, then perhaps another doc would.

I look forward to seeing your actual numbers. Sometimes "normal" is a relative word.

Tweety26 · 09-15-2008, 01:58 AM

RainbowBrite,

That is what I will likely do if he doesn't mention it to me first. I have jumped ahead of the RE and viewed my results so I am still waiting to hear from him and go over everything. My RE appears to be very competent so I have faith right now that he will go ahead and rx Met.

And you are so right about "normal" being a relative term. I work with medical records all day long and cannot ell how many times someone has reported normal findngs, just for us to get medical records that show some abnormality.

melee18 · 09-16-2008, 10:02 PM

Thanks for the thoughts ladies : )

Got my lab results in the mail today. Some interesting things I can't believe the endo isn't picking up on:

Cholesterol - 259
HDL - 84
LDL (calculated) - 158

FSH - 10
LH - 38

DHEAS - 240

Testosterone Total - 42
Testosterone Free - 1.25

Glucose Fasting - 74
Glucose 1 hour - 85
Glucose 2 hours - 68

Just comparing my results from this post
Understanding Tests and Hormone Levels for PCOS
it seems like between the FSH, LH, testosterone and DHEAS results and all of the symptoms I've been experiencing it would be enough for a diagnosis.

Tweety26 · 09-23-2008, 12:20 PM

My doctor finally reviewed my labs the end of last week. And YEP, I am definitely IR. He called in my rx for Metformin immediately. I was thankful that I didn't have to convince him to start me on it. I have been on it for 4 days and I am having GI side effects, but he is very confident that it will improve my symptoms and labs.

melee18 · 09-24-2008, 09:43 PM

Good luck with the Met Tweety. Hopefully you'll be able to tolerate it and it will help with your IR. I still haven't gotten back to my doctor yet - hard when you're busy at work and they are only there certain days of the week.

Last night I was looking through old pictures of when I was on the pill. I seemed to do really well on Mircette so I was thinking of maybe giving that a try again. Desogen made me gain weight, but Mircette seemed to help me maintain a healthy weight and cleared up my skin. At this point I think it might be worth a try. I really don't want to have to go to another doctor and go through any more tests.