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[KittyBee]

Dusting is way down the list of things I want to spend my evenings doing. 

[CLKD]

Morning  - dusting is off the bottom of my list  - gardening however  [we have threads about that too]

[KittyBee]

Happy New Year! Thought I’d update on what’s been happening since I started this thread.

The consultant’s letter arrived, mentioning APS and HRT, without actually stating that I had the condition. I spoke to my GP again and said I wanted to wait to find out if I had actually been diagnosed with APS, or even tested for it, before deciding on which HRT to go for. My GP agreed to look into some other options for me, and to write back to the rheumatologist to find out exactly what was going on with the APS.

I contacted the rheumatology nurse to try to get some information from my test results, and she offered to send me a leaflet about APS.

Fast forward to last week, and we received a reply from the rheumatologist - a very snotty letter, asking WHY I was contacting my GP for advice about APS (I wasn’t, I wanted to know if I had it or not). Anyway, she said I had been tested but my ‘anticardiolipin antibody was just borderline, which is not significant treatment wise’. So, not bad enough to be treated, but bad enough to affect options for HRT.

It’s put me RIGHT off seeing the rheumatologist again, and I am now unsure what to do about the HRT. I know I don’t want to get to the end of 2021 and still feel this rubbish though.

[Uptick]

Hi KittyBee, thank you for the update. Glad to hear you don't have APS, but not sure what borderline anticardiolipin antibody means symptom wise? Could some of your symptoms be from this or are they all related to menopause?

[KittyBee]

That’s the question, isn’t it? There is so much overlap with menopause, fibromyalgia, anaemia, vitamin deficiencies, let alone APS. I was hoping to try HRT to see if that improved any symptoms, and go from there.

The rheumatologist hasn’t been massively helpful, but I don’t know who else would be able to help really.

[Uptick]

Yes, it's really difficult to have a specific diagnosis when symptoms overlap and I agree with you that trying HRT would be the logical next step, after all you can always stop if symptoms get worse. You can ask your GP to take over the menopause treatment now that your auto antibodies test is 'normal'.