General Chat

What I have been told by the Endocrine Consultant is that my children are not at risk, because Addisons affects only 4 in every 100,000 of the population, so it is not passed on and it is even rarer to have more than one in a family suffer from it. m.

My husbands father died of Addisons disease in 1945 on the ISLE OF MAN, he was a seaman by trade. He left a wife and 3 children, he was only aged 37 years. Today they can keep the disease at bay with medication, it's sad that they had no such medication in the 1940s as then my hubby would not have been fatherless at aged 2 years. His mother worked very hard to bring them all up, she did a good job to.

A friend of mine's mother has addisons.Funnily enough,though rare she is the second person I know with it.What basically happens is that the adrenals(which are near the kidneys)pack up.The body needs them to produce adrenalin.Therefore,the early symptoms are just a feeling of being run down. I think it is a disease that lies dormant in certain people until triggered.Once triggered you may remain healthy for years before you start getting symptoms.It can be triggered by great blood loss.Both of the people I know had late miscarriages and this is what probably triggered it.There is a very slight risk of your children inheriting the condition but it would lie dormant unless triggered. The good news is my friends mum has had it for forty plus years and is a sprightly 76 years.The only time she has had any probs is when she has forgotten her medication or has been ill and the cortisone has gotten out of balance. I do hope this re-assures you,once they have got your medication sorted you will be feeling fine and most of the 99% of the time you won't even remember you've got it.(I resisted the temptation to say you'll feel normal as who wants to be NORMAL!!) Best wishes Janet

Val, in my case it has been a constant battle with my GPs. It's only because a really good doctor at the hospital noticed a few symptoms, that he did the blood test, as this is not carried out often and this then turned into an emergency for me, because I turned out to be more seriously ill than anyone realised. Tiredness is just one of the symptoms. I think my GP referred me to someone new at the hospital to stop me nagging him all the time and now my GP is doing all but kiss my feet. Wish your friend well from me. M.

I read about this condition on teletext, and thought it sounded so much like what my internet friend was suffering from, that I got her to print off info from website, and highlight her symptoms to give her doctor. The doctor seems to have totally ignored it, no other test they have done seems to have found out what's wrong with her, so can't understand why he won't at least give it a try, my friend seems to lack the energy to insist, so what can you do. Val

Hi Karen, I've had a quick look on the website, seems very informative, will take a better look later. I would like to get as much info as I can, the specialist just gave me the basics. How is your husband? Daphne, sorry to see you deleted your replies. M.

That's the one I'm thinking of contacting. Thank you though. M.

Hi Daphne, I am being treated with hyprocortosone tablets, because I have such a severe defiency of cortisol (natural steroid in body). I haven't had too much info from specialist at hospital, so was hoping to find someone who knows about this or has it to gain more info on it. May contact a support group I've found on Google. M.

Does anyone have this condition, know anyone with it or know anything about it? Grateful for all info. M.