the "e"in “eGFR” means estimated.., meaning the “eGFR” test, is not an accurate indicator of kidney function. i know of many people whom had low eGFR picked up in routine blood tests, but when they were retested 3 months later, their function was normal. (renal function can fluctulate a lot)
…and yes, if your original blood test 6 years ago,was accurate, then of course you could have developed renal disease within that time (i’m not saying you have, just answering your question)
many things can cause renal disease…, urinary reflux, mixed analgesic (certain medications) etc, etc, etc,
in regards to your fatigue, it is most likely due to a reduction in red cell production (kidneys play an important role in red cell production) but this can be treated with iron injections…,
renal disease is very particular to the person, (meaning some people can have significant renal disease and show no symptoms, while others can have lesser renal disease and be very ill, my mother only has 5% filtration, and she is not sick and is not on dialysis and shes 78 years old…
the kidneys preform many functions such as…, removing excess fluid, removing creatinine and other toxins, regulate sodium and potassium levels, play a role in red blood cell and calcium production, etc etc etc…, the eGFR test focuses on how much Creatinine is removed form the blood, and in my opinion they need to develope a new test that can monitor and equate the true extent of a person’s renal disease.
an example… two people have an eGFR of 10% one is feeling very ill the other shows no symptoms, why…, because the eGFR does not test for every renal malfunction, such as fluid retention, so one person may be on reduced fluid intake, and feeling ill and uncomfortable because they can’t remove excess fluid while the other person has no problem removing excess fluid, so they don’t feel uncomfortable, yet they both have the same kidney function rating (until they can develop a more inclusive test that measures everything in relation to the renal disease , then we’ll continue to see so called very sick people with no symptoms and somewhat vise-versa)
another example… most people go on dialysis when Creatinine levels reach 800 - 1,000 umol/L but some people are very ill when their creatine reached 400 umol/L yet others can tolerate Creatinie levels of 2,000 without being sick …, why ?
because we are all individual to our own disease is one reason, the other reason is if creatinine builds up slowly chronically over a long period of time some people can adjust to it with out getting sick (like my mother) but a high in crease in creatinine over a short period can make a person very ill.
here’s something else to remember The KIdney Foundation is always saying things like “there are thousands of people walking around with undiagnosed renal failure” but i really dispute that because the eGFR (in my opinion) over exaggerates renal disease the tests tend to say the function is worse then it is…, lots of people are admitted to hospital every year with zero renal function (and don’t die) consider this, if a person has Zero respiration, he dies in 3 minutes, if a person has Zero cardiac activity he dies in 3 minutes but if a person has zero renal function…, they so often don’t die.