“What kind of doctor are you?”

Several weeks ago, I was running in a 93-mile ultramarathon in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas when one of the other runners was lost between mile 41 and mile 50. The rest of the race was cancelled and we were organized into search parties.

Before we set out, I let one of the organizers know that I was a physician. He asked, “What kind of doctor are you?”

“I’m an endocrinologist,” I replied.

“Oh….” he responded unimpressed.

“Oh!?!” I thought, “what does he mean by that?” He appeared truly disappointed to have only an endocrinologist on his team and not a trauma surgeon or ER doctor.

It is interesting the responses I get when I answer the question: What kind of doctor are you? Either the individual knows what an endocrinologist is, or they have no idea.

My wife was once asked, “What does your husband do for a living?”

“He’s an endocrinologist,” she answered, waiting for the inevitable, “What’s that?”

Before that question came, however, a gentleman interjected, “Oh, I know! I know what that is!”

“You do?” She was surprised. Most people do not know and she is used to explaining.

“They work with bugs!” he proudly answered. “Isn’t that right?”

She politely corrected him, “No, you’re thinking of an entomologist — not an endocrinologist.”

When she told him what an endocrinologist was, he got a puzzled look on his face. It was as if he couldn’t decide which occupation was the stranger of the two: An entomologist or an endocrinologist?

The lay public I do not blame for not knowing. We endocrinologists are a small and often misunderstood subspecialty. Unless you had to see an endocrinologist yourself or had a friend or family member who did, how would you know?

What surprises me is how many of our peers also do not understand what we do. When I am in a group of health care professionals and they discover I am an endocrinologist, their usual response is, “Oh, you must work with diabetes!”

Of course I work with diabetes!

However, as we all know, endocrinologists manage a variety of hormonal and metabolic disorders. It is difficult to not let my annoyance show when I demonstrate an interest in something besides blood glucose, such as lipids, but am met with, “Why are you interested in cholesterol? You’re not a cardiologist.” I occasionally hear similar responses when I mention my expertise in osteoporosis (you’re not a rheumatologist) and that I perform my own diagnostic ultrasounds and ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (you’re not a radiologist).

The various perspectives of different specialties all have their place. No single specialty should “own” any specific disease, particularly the complex metabolic disorders we deal with. It is in the best interest of patients to be managed by a team of skilled professionals collaboratively working together.

Yes, endocrinologists manage diabetes but we also diagnose and treat many other diagnoses. Some of us choose to focus our practice and be diabetologists or thyroidologists only. That does not mean the rest of us have no interest in the other aspects of our specialty. As a group, we need to do a better job of getting the word out to our peers and the public about what it is that endocrinologists do. We should never be shy about advocating for ourselves and explaining what our fascinating subspecialty is to anyone who may ask.