You & Your Hormones is designed to provide you with web-based information on hormones and hormone-related conditions.  However, we cannot offer any medical advice to individuals on health issues.  However, throughout the website we provide links to relevant patient groups, who may be able to provide advice and support. These groups are made up of individuals, and so we can’t vouch for all the advice that they might give.  Sometimes it is difficult to be able to recognise which patient groups are reliable, and which are not.  If you are unsure, we would suggest you consider the following points:

• Does the patient group seem to have reputable advisors?  These would normally include reputable doctors.  Endocrinology is an area of medicine which is quite academic, and so a lot of senior endocrinologists are associated with large teaching hospitals or universities.  
• What is the qualification of the advisor?  If someone has a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), then they are still called a Doctor, even though they are not a medical doctor.  That doesn’t mean that they are not knowledgeable; however, medical doctors tend to have qualifications like MB, ChB, or MD.  In the UK, all medical doctors will also be registered with the General Medical Council.  
• Does the group give the impression that it works with the medical establishment, or against it?  There are some patient support groups which do not support what medical opinion is saying.

List of patient support groups

ACC Support UK Addison's Disease Self Help Group Alex, The Leukodystrophy Charity  Association for Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Disorders (AMEND)  British Thyroid Foundation Brittle Bone Society Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust CAH Support Group Child Growth Foundation dsdfamilies Parathyroid UK Klinefelter's Syndrome Association UK National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome (NAPS) Neuroendocrine Cancer UK Pituitary Foundation Prader-Willi Syndrome Association UK Thyroid Eye Disease Charitable Trust Turner Syndrome Support Society Verity