Sarah Keogh

So this is the thing a lot of people would like as you say assume sure I'd know I'd have it and I think you know 30 years ago we used to talk about celiac disease as it turned up in children you got lots of diarrhea you got weight loss it was very obvious.

What we now know is that that is the really severe end of it in terms of symptoms and it's usually where it has progressed.

What we now know is that the symptoms can be outside of the gut really an awful lot of them would be outside of the gut and you can actually have celiac disease and have what looks like a perfectly healthy gut.

So you can have things like mouth ulcers, poor tooth enamel, very specific skin rashes, hair loss, migraine and infertility can all be signs of celiac disease.

And that's one that I think gets missed a huge amount.

And, you know, we don't see an awful lot of people being tested for that when fertility kind of comes up as an issue.

But we know that men and women who are celiac, if they're not treated, both of them find it harder to become parents.

And then if a woman has celiac disease and it's not treated, they can have several repeated miscarriages.

They are more likely to have a stillborn baby and they will have babies that are smaller for their age when they're born, which means it's growth retardation in the womb for them.

Not to the extent that it should.

And that's why the campaign with the Celiac Society this year is really asking people, have you ruled it out?

You know, it might not be celiac disease.

All of these things can be caused by something else.

But have you ruled it out?

What we would see in the Celiac Society is it takes an average of 14 years for people to be diagnosed with celiac disease from the first time they go to their doctor.

And some people we can see 20, 30 years of symptoms before somebody finally checked.

So it's just rule it out.

It's a blood test with your doctor.

If you're having symptoms, particularly if you're struggling with fertility, make sure celiac disease has been ruled out for you.

About 40% of celiacs have no digestive issues or they're so mild it doesn't occur to them to go to the doctor.