Diseases relating to obesity, irregular menses, hair fall, hairs over unwanted areas, anxiety, unexplainable swelling or any picture slightly differing from routine clinical scene is now a days are labelled as a hormonal problem by our treating brethren. Trivial illnesses sometimes needs a thoughtful evaluation, we need to unravel the mystery of a diagnosis before sending or referring to other speciality.
Hormonal illnesses are a little bit occult illnesses to the treating brethren and most of the times to our patients. There are instances where a patient is being referred to a doctor for an illness which is hormonal but the treating physician is not aware of it and mostly vice versa.
What are some of the illnesses catered by a hormone doctor i.e. when does an Endocrinologist become important?
Endocrinologists see cases of diabetes, thyroid, obesity, PCOS, pituitary, adrenal, gonads, bone illnesses relating to metabolism like osteoporosis, osteomalacia, rare types of rickets, endocrine causes of hypertension, disease relating to calcium i.e. parathyroid problems. The spectrum of cases are wide and mostly treatable. Proper selection and reference to a trained doctor brings very satisfying results. On the contrary unnecessary labelling of a case as hormonal problem leads to a series of unwanted costlier tests.
Morbidity of illness increases even before making a diagnosis as a hormonal disease. In ideal setting, the patient should see a good general medicine doctor and he should take the lead and if required, he should send the patient to an Endocrinologist. With increased awareness, patients are directly approaching endocrinologists even for diseases like thyroid, diabetes and obesity. Consulting a good, right doctor saves time, unnecessary tests and the unseen and unexplainable pain.