Low white blood count - and waiting 2 months for more news

Hi
I went to the doctor recently and she did some routine bloodwork as I have never had it done in the UK. I am 34 years old and otherwise healthy. It came back with a low white blood count, 2920. She called it neutropenia and wants me retested in 8 weeks. I googled it and it came back with all sorts of scary possibiliites. She told me not to worry, and just come back and have it checked in 8 weeks. She said it may be that my body had fought of glandular fever, but I havent been ill recently.  Apparently my thryroid T4 levels are borderline low. I dont know what any of these things mean, but now I have to wait 8 weeks to find out if they are worse. Do these things correct themselves? Why do I have to wait 2 months to do the same test??

At a guess (and I'm not a doctor, just someone who's had an assortment of blood work done) some level of variation in some blood parameters is normal on account of illness, stress etc. The reason for waiting 2 months is just to see whether it is a longer term thing or just a blip (or whether there is a trend away from normal or towards normal)  - if it is fixing itself then there's no need to intervene.

edit to clarify...: and if they thought a parameter was critically low, they would most likely refer you to a consultant (or send you to A&E) but for many cases though they may have long-term health implications they don't need emergency action - it's better to understand the trend and gather a bit more data.

I completely agree with cabbage.  If they were really concerned..they would have done further tests there and then...Its good tho that have a eye on you...

It could be something as silly as an infection, my wife had an extremely low blood count she had an abeses that was bad, so it could be your body has had an infection you might not of even noticed.

Indy

Some people just have a naturally lower white blood count. I do (not sure what it is off the top of my head though). Yes, it's scary, but sometimes your body does such a good job of fighting things off, you don't feel sick, but the bloodwork shows that you *could* have been! So try to keep positive and cross the scary bridges only when you have to!

I went to the doctor for my skin troubles and they discovered I had very swollen lymph nodes.  (not the same thing... but both possibly indicate an infection of some kind)  turns out about 2 months beforehand I had acquired a strep infection in London that I called the "English flu" and thought it was just a very bad cold.  By the time I went to the doctor, I had no more symptoms other than the swollen lymph nodes, I had been feeling fine for ages.  Were you sick a while back and possibly just haven't thought of it because it seems too long ago to be connected?  Don't worry too much, as the others said, if they thought it was truly serious, I am sure they would have run more tests right then.  They probably just want to see if there are any changes over a significant period of time.  Good luck!!

there are at least two kinds of neutropenia (an online friend of mine had a toddler/preschooler with it). One is congenital which I'm guessing you don't have and its the more serious one. Neutropenia can be scary and even when its scary you can get 100% better like my friend's daughter. I think its likely you just have an infection you're fighting.

Maybe they toss aroudn the word neutropenia because it means literally low white blood count (i'm not 100% sure)? in that case it may be freaking you out more than it should be and they probably just didn't explain it well enough. I agree with the other posters that a "come back in 8 weeks" doesn't sound like they're worried. I bet they are thinking that in 8 weeks you'll be over whatever you're fighting and that the levels will come back normal.