Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffIn most cases, elevated calcium is detected by blood tests your doctor has ordered as part of a routine screening, a diagnostic workup for an unrelated condition, or a diagnostic workup to identify the cause of very general symptoms.
Talk to your doctor about test results if they show you have high levels of calcium. Questions you might ask your doctor include:
- Do I have hyperparathyroidism?
- What test do I need to confirm the diagnosis or determine the cause?
- Should I see a specialist in hormone disorders (endocrinologist)?
- If I have hyperparathyroidism, do you recommend surgery?
- What alternatives do I have to surgery?
- Do you have printed material about hyperparathyroidism that I can take home with me?
In order to understand the effect of hyperparathyroidism on your overall health, your doctor may ask you questions about possible mild signs or symptoms, including:
- Depression
- Aches and pains
- General feeling of being unwell
- Forgetfulness
- Excessive urination
Your doctor may ask you additional questions about what medications you're taking and what your diet is like to help determine if you get adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D.
- Rodgers SE, et al. Primary hyperparathyroidism. Current Opinion in Oncology 2008;20:52.
- The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons position statement on the diagnosis and management of primary hyperparathyroidism. Endocrine Practice. 2005;11:49.
- Hyperparathyroidism. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://www.endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/hyper/hyper.htm. Accessed March 23, 2009.
- El-Hajj Fuleihan G. Clinical manifestations of primary hyperparathyroidism. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 23, 2009.
- Taniegra ED. Hyperparathyroidism. American Family Physician. 2004;69:333.
- Bringhurst FR. Hormones and disorders of mineral metabolism. In: Kronenberg, HM, et al., eds. Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/127508547-4/0/1555/168.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2911-3..50029-7--p1224. Accessed March 23, 2009.
- Dietary supplement fact sheet: Vitamin D. National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD_pf.asp. Accessed March 24, 2009.
- Dietary supplement fact sheet: Calcium. National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium_pf.asp. Accessed March 24, 2009.
- Phosphorus. Foods Standards Agency (UK). Accessed March 25, 2009.
- Wuthrich RP, et al. The role of calcimimetics in the treatment of hyperparathyroidism. European Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2007;37:915.
- Silverberg SJ, et al. Management of asymptomatic primary hyperparathyroidism. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 23, 2009.
