If you are extremely fatigued you may have had a Synacten test. This really is only useful to exclude Addisons or maybe severe suppression of the adrenals due to large amounts of hydrocortisone being prescribed over many years for another condition. Most ME/CFS sufferers do not come into these categories so they are told their adrenals are alright.
Maybe if NHS doctors had better knowledge and diagnostic testing, adrenal fatigue would be picked up sooner and far fewer people would descend to the state now called ME/CFS.

If you understand GAS and the NHS attitude you are partway to helping yourself recover. You can get a private saliva test via THE RED APPLE CLINIC (no doctor’s request needed) which measures the adrenal hormones cortisol and DHEA. You will get an interpretation which will tell you which stage of GAS you are at see: www.thyroiduk.org for a link: orders through Thyroid UK attract a lower price £93.50, this also includes a coeliac screen. A fuller test includes thyroid hormones also £141.90. Anybody not on the internet phone me on the Help Line and I will send you the details.

The best book I have found on adrenal fatigue, for this is what ME/CFS sufferers have is :
’Adrenal Fatigue, the 21st Century Stress Syndrome’ by James Wilson ND.
ISBN 1-890572-15-2. This is available from Amazon UK from £4.31p.

The use of this book and a private test may help you decide whether you can help yourself or whether you need a doctors help. Dr.Peatfield is one of the few doctors who is experienced at dealing with adrenal fatigue and thyroid problems that may result from it. Phone 01883 623125. He does clinics around the country including Leeds, see wwwthyroid-disease.org.uk for dates and booking an appointment. Several people from the group have consulted him, all had been ill in excess of 10 years and everyone has made positive progress. Having established that you have some degree of adrenal fatigue, you need to identify as far as possible what has chronically stressed you and deal with it.

Among these maybe:
Chronic anxiety, this is often life style related and this is where Reverse, Mickle or Lightning therapy etc may help.
Chronic pain or inflammation eg arthritis
Hidden stressors such as parasites, chronic infections, such as Helicobacter which causes duodenal ulcers.
Coeliac disease. As you will have seen in the last News Letter you can have this without the obvious gut problems that accompany the description of symptoms. So this is a possible misdiagnosis.
Hypoglycaemia from poor digestion and malabsorbtion. Food intolerance or undiagnosed coeliac maybe involved here. This is a complex issue but the commonest problem foods are wheat, milk, eggs and soya. The RED APPLE CLINIC do a saliva screen for these too £60.23.
Use of corticosteroids (hydrocortisone or prednisolone) for another condition e.g. arthritis or asthma. If used in large doses long term these may result in adrenal suppression.
If you have been abroad consider chronic tropical diseases and parasites. These are often overlooked by the NHS as experience in recognizing them is limited and testing is not foolproof.

Point B
Stacey asked
‘if ME/CFS is caused by HPA axis dysfunction shouldn’t it be classed as an endocrine problem?.’