Even though he is retired from the NHS, did you by chance ask him for a possible reference/name of a doctor that might be willing to help you? When you get a little string of hope that a doctor understands and confirms your condition, then you grasp a hold of that string and hope they can point you in the right direction. If he does know someone that might be willing to at least look at this, it would be even better if this endo gave a call to the doctor...sort of leading your way, if you know what i mean. After all, if he's been around long enough to just now be retiring, then he likely knows all sorts of doctors in the system (or outside the system)! Ask him for his input...a name or two.