Frequently asked questions

Use the appointment form on this website and the clinic will telephone you to confirm a time, usually within one working day. For a same-day or urgent request, please ring the number in the page header instead — a phone call is always faster than a form.

Hospital OPDs at CMRI and Narayana Memorial are booked through the hospital's own reception. For district chambers, it is worth calling the chamber number listed on its page before travelling.

Whichever is easiest for you to reach and return to. Endocrine conditions need review over months and years rather than a single visit, so the chamber you can get to comfortably every few months is nearly always the better choice than the one that seems most impressive.

That said: if your problem needs same-day tests, an ultrasound, or admission, a hospital OPD is the better setting. The Chambers page lists every location with its days and timings, and the weekly timetable shows them all side by side.

Yes — and this is worth taking seriously if you are travelling any distance. Several district visits run on a monthly rotation, such as the 1st and 3rd Saturday, and a hospital OPD can be rescheduled at short notice. Timings shown on this website are kept up to date and any known cancellation appears on the chamber's page, but please telephone ahead before a long journey.

Bring everything you have, even if it seems old or irrelevant:

• all previous prescriptions, including from other doctors
• every blood report and scan you hold, in date order if possible
• the actual strips or boxes of the medicines you take, or a written list with doses
• your home blood sugar or blood pressure diary, if you keep one
• for a child, the growth chart and immunisation record

Old reports are genuinely useful. A five-year-old thyroid result or an earlier scan often changes the plan, because what matters in endocrinology is frequently the trend rather than today's number.

If you are likely to need blood tests on the day — and at a first visit for diabetes, thyroid, obesity or lipid problems you probably will — come fasting where you reasonably can: nothing but water for eight to ten hours.

Two important exceptions. If you take insulin or a sulphonylurea, do not skip meals or medication without asking first, because fasting can cause hypoglycaemia. And if you already take thyroid medication, take it after the blood sample is drawn, not before.

Most endocrine conditions are diagnosed and monitored on blood tests, so usually yes. Wherever possible tests are ordered so they can be done at a laboratory near your home, and reports can be discussed at review.

Some investigations — dynamic hormone stimulation and suppression tests in particular — must be done under supervision at a centre equipped for them, and will be arranged specifically.

Sometimes, and it is worth being precise about what that means. In type 2 diabetes of recent onset, particularly with significant excess weight, substantial and sustained weight loss can bring blood sugar back to the normal range without medication. That is properly called remission rather than cure: the underlying tendency remains, sugars can rise again, and annual monitoring should continue for life.

It is more likely the earlier it is attempted and the more weight is lost. It is not achievable for everyone, and it is not a reason to stop prescribed medicine on your own. Type 1 diabetes is a different condition altogether and always requires insulin — no diet or supplement changes that.

Often yes, but not always, and it is a fair question to ask. Where hypothyroidism is due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis or follows thyroid surgery or radioiodine, replacement is usually lifelong.

But levothyroxine is also sometimes started on the strength of a single borderline report, during an acute illness, or in pregnancy without later review — and in those situations it may not be needed at all. Bring your old reports and the question can be answered properly. Never simply stop the tablet to find out.

Not automatically. A mildly raised TSH with a normal T4 is called subclinical hypothyroidism, and whether it warrants treatment depends on how high the TSH actually is, on thyroid antibodies, on your age, on whether you have symptoms, and above all on whether you are pregnant or planning to be — in which case the threshold to treat is much lower.

In many people the right first step is simply to repeat the test after a few weeks, since a single abnormal value often normalises on its own.

This worry is very common and it stops a great many people from taking treatment that would help them. Hormone replacement — thyroid hormone, cortisol, testosterone, insulin — replaces something the body is not making in sufficient quantity. At the correct dose it restores normal physiology; it does not damage the body.

What does cause harm is an incorrect dose, which is exactly why these treatments are monitored with blood tests rather than started and forgotten. Insulin in particular is not a last resort or a sign of failure, and delaying it when it is needed causes far more damage than starting it.

Please tell us exactly what you are taking, and bring the packet. That is not a preamble to being told off — it is because some preparations genuinely interact. Certain products contain undeclared steroids, which raise blood sugar and can suppress the adrenal glands; others affect thyroid function or liver enzymes; some interfere with the absorption of levothyroxine.

The one thing that does real harm is stopping prescribed medicine — insulin or thyroid hormone especially — in favour of an alternative preparation. If you are thinking about it, discuss it first.

Follow-up consultations can often be handled remotely, which suits patients who live far from a chamber and simply need reports reviewed and doses adjusted. Please ask the clinic when you telephone.

A first consultation is better in person: examination matters in endocrinology — the thyroid gland, the feet in diabetes, blood pressure, height and weight, pubertal staging in a child — and none of that can be done over a video call.

Fees vary by chamber, because hospital OPDs, polyclinics and pharmacy chambers each set their own. Please confirm with the chamber when you book. Where a fee has been supplied to us it is shown on that chamber's page.

An isolated report is genuinely difficult to interpret in isolation, because the same number means different things in different people — an elevated TSH during an acute illness, a cortisol drawn at the wrong hour, a testosterone taken in the afternoon. Answering properly needs your history and your medicines alongside the figure.

If you are an existing patient with a follow-up report, ring the clinic and it can usually be dealt with quickly.

Do not use this website or wait for a reply. Go to your nearest hospital emergency department, or call 108.

Situations needing same-day attention include: blood sugar persistently above 300 mg/dL, or below 70 mg/dL with confusion or drowsiness; vomiting with abdominal pain and rapid breathing in someone with diabetes; any foot ulcer, blackened area or spreading redness, especially with fever; spasm of the hands or face; and severe weakness with dizziness in anyone taking steroid replacement, which may indicate adrenal crisis.