Diagnosis
Articles about diagnosing hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC).
Here is one of the great ironies of Celtic Curse: It is hard to diagnose but easy to test. A simple and inexpensive ($7) blood test will tell your doctor if you have too much iron in your system. A simple and relatively inexpensive ($199) genetic test will tell you if you have the genetic defect that causes hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC).
Unfortunately, health insurance companies in America often require a reason to perform this particular blood test or set of tests, reasons such as the patient already exhibiting symptoms (see Symptoms). Sadly, many doctors do not think of hemochromatosis when they see those symptoms and therefore they don’t order the blood tests. Fortunately, the genetic test is something you can order yourself, without a prescription.
Should you push your doctor for blood tests to find out your iron levels? Should you push your doctor for a genetic test or simply buy one yourself? The answers depend on several factors, including risk factors. The most obvious risk factors are your family medical history. The good news here is that you may be able to develop a family strategy around testing, one that could spread the costs because several people can benefit from one test.
That topic and more will be addressed on this page.
Menopause or Hemo-pause? What women of a certain age need to know about HHC
September is Menopause Awareness Month. Regular readers of CelticCurse.org will know that July was Hemochromatosis awareness month. So why is this website–devoted to raising awareness of Celtic Curse or hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC)–talking about menopause? The answer is: hemo-pause. What is hemo-pause? It’s a term we coined for a syndrome which afflicts women entering menopause with [...]
Difficulty Getting a Diagnosis of Hemochromatosis (and other damage done)
Back when I was writing about hemochromatosis on my personal blog I got a lot of questions about diagnosis. I thought I would share how I tried to answer them. For example, Stacey asked “How was your wife diagnosed?” Here is how I responded: Thanks for your question Stacey. You ask how my wife was [...]
