What Kind of Doctor?

[Dia Minha]

I am in need of a full physical. I need a doctor that can check my thyroid, cholesterol, hormone levels, blood sugar levels etc. Can I go to an OBGYN? My experience with OBGYNs is that they only check female problems. What about a family practitioner? Would they be able and willing to check out female problems as well as cholesterol, blood sugar, etc. What do you ladies think would be my best option?

[crazyK]

I go to a family doctor. They can pretty much do everything but maybe not pregnancy. I think you just have to tell any Dr. what you want done and they will do it or tell you who to go to. But my family Dr. does my pap and all the blood work stuff, well he sends me to the mini lab and then we go over the results in a week or two. I like going to a family doctor because he really knows me and may family because we go a lot and I am always with my children. Hope this helps a little.

[Erudite]

I had all that done by my OBGYN about two years ago. We were ruling out causes of some woman problems I was having and so we checked all of those too. If there's no problem with those, I agree with K that you can see you OBGYN, but if you did find a problem, you'd be off to see others.

I mentioned "chest pain" to my OBGYN last time I saw him and at the end of the appt, he said, "good luck with that". I was a little bugged that he didn't inquire further, but that wasn't his area of expertise. However, I have found that it's possible that the reason I was seeing my OBGYN is connected to the chest pain, so it would have been nice to have heard that.

[Dia Minha]

Well, I've made an appointment with a family doctor. My OBGYN is moving, or just moved or something, so I didn't want to have to try and find another one. Hopefully this doctor will be able to prescribe the right tests and can give me some idea of what might be going on.