Doc wants me to eat gluten for a week to test for coeliac...

Firstly, it should be pointed out that, in order to have a test for coeliac disease, you need to eat gluten on a regular basis for at least SIX WEEKS! So I am a little sceptical about what your doctor is hoping to achieve after 1 week!  (If you don't believe me, ask Coeliac UK).

Also, if you have been gluten free for more than 10 years, you need to ask yourself, 'do I really want to put myself through this?' What are you to be gaining from having an official diagnosis? It's your body and only you can decide, but don't let anyone bully you into it. Admittedly, you need to have an official diagnosis to get certain foods on prescription, but to be honest, up to now, I have never got anything on prescription as I prefer the better gluten free breads etc, which are not available on prescription.

Also, even of you ate gluten for 6 weeks, you can get a false negative result, as the only way they confirm coeliac disease is by a biopsy. Which they do following on from the blood test, so in actual fact, you would be needing to eat gluten for more than 6 weeks, while you are waiting for your biopsy appointment.  I hope this information is of some help to you.

i wouldn't be able to go back to gluten either after such a long break. It would be awful and actually extremely unpleasant. I would go back to him/her and explain that, and ask what it is s/he hopes to achieve by putting you through this........it may be that there is a diagnosis wanted because once you are diagnosed Coeliac, if you are  ever admitted to hospital later, you will automatically be given gluten-free food.  I don't use the food available on prescrition either, because my experience was that the bread was inferior to that which I can buy in the shops. Old, and just about to go stale.Good luck.

One thing that did occur to me on reading MaggieBgood's response.  I notice it is the rheumatologist that is asking for you to try it. Presumably you have either arthritis or fibromyalgia or something similar(?) What is known is, if you have one auto-immune disease (e.g. Rheumatoid arthritis etc.) your chances of having another is increased. I have a thyroid disorder (another auto-immune disease)  as well as coeliac disease.  Also, I was diagnosed with IBS over 30 years ago, and it turned out it wasn't IBS but coeliac disease. I hope all this information and discussion helps you to decide your next move.

I have since found out it is indeed 6 weeks - although I was 3 days into eating gluten when I realised the rheumatologist was wrong!

I'll have been eating it a week tomorrow - just two slices of wholemeal bread a day.

I am seeing a rheumatologist because I'm in the 'we don't know what's wrong with you as your results are vague but we haven't tried this route before'....so I've had bloods done for every autoimmune thing under the sun and get results in about another 7 weeks. If they come back as showing anything I go back to them, if not I get referred on to the cfs/m.e./fibromyalgia clinic.

I keep getting gastro symptoms though and they're worried about some vitamin deficiences/iron deficiencies that won't go away, so think that's why they want to find out for sure about the coeliac. I've refused to do the test before as I was always working or studying, right now I've been signed off for 2.5 months and still not ready to go back - went out briefly yesterday for about 2 hours and ended up sleeping 10 hours straight and waking up feeling like I've been run over by a truck several times. It's even a struggle to lift a plate :-/ 

Just want answers - I'm the kind of person that likes to know and likes to have answers. I've gone 21 years with no answers of any kind and purely a diagnosis of IBS and sent packing, so I'm finally getting answers now. Though regarding the gluten - I am feeling more tired, and itchy bizarrely and my IBS is less happy, so I guess for now I'll just keep going. Best case scenario it was an intolerance that has gone now - worst case it's coeliac, in the meantime I'm just enjoying not washing my hands between prepping my bread and everyone else's and all the other little things that I'd not even realised I do to stop myself getting glutened.

Well my two main symptoms, before the permanent trots and severe weight loss, was iron deficiency and tiredness. I remember having my hair done once, and I genuinly could not lift my head off the sink. They had to help me. Skin disorders are a part of Coeliac too.  After diagnosis, I felt 100% better after about 2 months, and then it just got better and better. I feel really good now. Back to normal.  So, best of luck.

A lot of your symptoms seem like the ones I had before I was diagnosed. I was severely anaemic and wasn't absorbing nutrients from my food, I had bad gastro symptoms too. (As well as other symptoms).  Although everyone's symptoms are different and some people don't get any symptoms.  Hope you get a definite result one way or the other.