Are you suffering from it?


Symptoms of Hypothyroidism

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Weight gain or increased difficulty losing weight
• Coarse, dry hair
• Dry, rough pale skin
• Hair loss
• Cold intolerance (you can't tolerate cold temperatures like those around you)
• Muscle cramps and frequent muscle aches
• Constipation
• Depression
• Irritability
• Memory loss
• Abnormal menstrual cycles
• Decreased libido

I am on medication and I would like to know if some of you have to deal with this.

How long have you been diagnose?

Which medication do you have?

Are you at your perfect dosage?

Do you still have any of those symptomes?

I've had it since I was 16. I take medication, but I tend to drift easily and thus am not easily regulated. The other WONDERFUL thing is that dosages US vs. CH are completely different (not just a different decimal), so I just bought 6 months of the stuff to get me through the rest of my pregnancy without going into thyroid storm.

Being pregnant and having hypo. Does it scares you? Is your child at risk or if the risks are controled since you are under medications?

My gynaecologist found out that I might have hypothyroidism several years ago, because he noticed that my hormone values in the blood samples he took were weird. Anyway, he recommended that I have it checked out and it turned out he was right. I'd asked him about the first signs of menopause, but he thought that I was probably too young then, so it must be something else.

Anyway, long story, short outcome: I've been taking Eltroxin 0.15 mg daily now for the last 5 or 6 years and have absolutely no problems with it. I go for a checkup once a year and that's basically that. My weight is normal, I'm active, I sleep like a baby (when it's not too hot).

I'm now "officially" slap bang in the middle menopause so I do get hot flushes etc., but apart from that I've not really noticed any difference.

It bothers me a bit. I was well-controlled during 99% of the first trimester, but went off the rails again in the 2nd (yay, continual morning sickness!). Thankfully, Sprog starts producing its own thyroid around 10 weeks, and regulates itself (and doesn't have to rely upon my shoddy thyroid for hormones).

I am a bit worried that Sprog might be a bit slower than they would have been otherwise, but the doc says that since I was 'under control' the first 8 weeks (then develops their own around 10 weeks), they should be as intelligent as ever.

Nil, I'm hyperthyroid, not hypo (although the wrong dosage of my meds threw me into a hypo phase at one point.)

I've learned from my experience that the relationship with your endocrinologist is very important as you are trying to find a treatment regime that works for you. I was getting nowhere, felt awful all the time, very frustrated (and frustrating to live with my husband tells me... ) until by chance I switched doctors.

If you are not getting the support you feel you need, if you are not happy with the way you feel most of the time, have a frank discussion with the doctor, get second opinions, and if necessary - switch.

Wishing you all the best.

I was also diagnosed about a year ago, having suffered pretty much all of the symptoms that Nil mentions. I take 0.1mg of Eltroxin, having gone up from 0.5 after six months. The effect is still being closely monitored by my having my blood tested every three months, and I believe that it will need to be carefully monitored going forward.

The good news is that the horrible symptoms have disappeared and I have a lot more energy and zest for life. It does take a few months for the effects of the medication to kick in and can take a lot longer to get precisely the right dose, apparently. But, it is manageable, and luckily the treatment does not seem to offer any unpleasant side-effects.

Incidentally, Nil, I know that you were complaining of fluid retention recently and that is also something that I suffered from terribly that I believe was directly attributable to the condition. Good luck anyway!

Apparently, you can have hypothyroidism and not having it showed in the blood test. Some patient went nuts to try to find what was their problems because doctors coudn't find anything in the blood results until someone finally decided to listen the symptoms instead of the numbers.

I wished I had more answers from people on the forum about my littles questions... Maybe not many of us have this in here.

Not with you Nil. It looks to me as though, between us, we have answered all your initial questions ...

I must be a bit slow...

I have Hashimoto's, which, in my case, equals hypothyroidism. It doesn't seem to be possible to regulate my meds bang on - if I take the right amount to have enough energy, less water retention and not put on weight from just looking at a cake, then I end up with the symptoms of hyperthyroidism. So I'm basically working on a "slightly below par" level, including accepting that if I want to lose weight, it's going to be hell. When I was first diagnosed, the meds made a huge difference, including taking off all the weight I had mysteriously put on. Then I sort of forgot to take my meds for a while (I was younger and more foolish), so we had to start again, this time without the weight coming off. So I have slowly but surely been getting fatter as time goes by, every now and then I go "right, I'm going to cut the carbs and up the gym time" but I just end up being grumpy and exhausted so I'll have to figure something else out.

I'm probably not a typical case though, because I also have SLE, which means I get corticosteroids every now and then and am even more prone to tiredness. I've lost count of how many times I've had to cancel something last minute because I literally couldn't stand up straight from tiredness.

I think part of the problem for diagnosing hypothyroid is that it shares symptoms with other endocrine "syndromes."

My mother has Hashimoto's Thydroiditis and is taking replacement medicine (synthroid), she was diagnosed when I was a child... I was probably something around 6 so it was close to 35yrs ago. I think that there still is a lot that is unknown, there certainly was then for sure.

My mother's medication dosage changes depending upon what other medicines she may be taking and if she changes her diet drastically, this can alter her needed dosage as well. Because of this, she has to be tested and her dosages adjusted fairly frequently... it's not something that she get a dosage for and that's it forever. Anything which can affect your (in this case hers) hormones (which is more than most folks realize) will affect how well meds work for you.

One of the things which comes up in family discussions is that the three of us older kids (and similar age offspring for my aunts who have that and other autoimmune disorders as well) is that we've got some differences from our younger siblings and cousins but that we share with each other.

Some speculation (which is discussed between them as well as between them and their doctors) is that us older kids may have these issues because of their (my mom and aunts) undiagnosed and untreated thyroid problems.



One of the things that sticks out for me about my mother and her diagnosis is this:
There are huge periods from when I was very young which was before my mother was diagnosed and treated which my mother can not remember at all and others in which she can only remember "snapshot" images.

As far as your questions go though, I'm sorry I can't answer them. Because of shared symptoms to PCOS, I "wind up" being tested for thyroid conditions as well as diabetes fairly often - and with a new doctor (as I'll have soon), fairly rigorously. So far (knock wood) my thyroid and blood sugar have tested within normal ranges though.

I was diagnose Hashimoto during my pregnancy. My doctor called me because my numbers weren't right and apparently I was Hyper. I didn't feel it, I actually felt great. No symptoms of hyper, I was sleeping well, etc.

Anyway, he changed my meds to go down slowly and now it is a nightmare. I shouldn't have listen to him. My body temperature doesn't go higher than 36.4. I am under 35.5 in the morning, my metabolism is just too slow.

I am taking back the number I was before he changed it. I felt great.

Numbers are definitely not everything. You must listen your symptoms.

Anyone on Armour here?

Does that mean that you have gone from hypo to hyper? If so, is that as a result of your medication and/or your pregnancy?

I forgot to mention when I posted last year that I was only diagnosed with hypothyroidism when I suffered from a kidney infection and the resultant blood tests showed that I was seriously anaemic with very high cholesterol levels. Appartently these are both very common side-effects of hypo and, after further blood tests, my doctor confirmed that I was suffering from hypothyroidism. However, after starting my course of Eltroxin and also carefully monitoring my diet and eating huge amounts of oat bran, which is known to lower cholesterol, both my anaemia and cholesterol levels quickly went back to normal.

The good news is that all the other horrible side effects also disappeared fairly rapidly too.

hi Nil,

i have hypothyrodism for past one year.Tht is after pregnancy.Initially this was not found in Swiss.Went i went to india for vaccation,i said to my gyno reg my tirdness,she insisted me to take blood test and they found it.

Its gud tht i got to know atleast by now.So i am taking medication for past 4 months.

Before taking medication i was not sleepin well and was undergoing on all the symptoms as u mentioned.After medication,i feel better(few symptoms are there still) and my gyno here in swiss said me to reduce the dozage when am suffering frm sleepless nite.

When am thinkin abt something too much,i get sleepless nite and also kind of depression.but looking in my baby face i forget everything.

so my advice is stick on to ur Dr medication.
take care

Hypothyroidism would definitely show in your blood results. Symptoms may be similar but if your blood results are fine it can't be HT.

I had many of the symptoms you describe, but as I was just about 50 and trying to juggle a difficult job, and sandwiched between sick elderly parents abroad and teenage daughters going through a funny () phase- I jsut assumed I was just getting to the menopause. I never went to a doctor, and it was years before I was diagnosed - quite severe hypothyroidism and Type 2 diabetes. It was quite a blow. I've been on 125mg of thyroxine daily and I do feel much better, but still finding it very difficult to lose weight despite being very active.

I love Armour but you can't get it anymore. Basically it is crushed pigs thyroid. Armour was a a meat packing business, they wondered what to do with the thyroids and found that they were useful for hypothyroidism. You have to get a blood test and find out how much T3 and T4 you have. I like Amour because it lifts the " I can't be bothered' feeling. Armour covers more of teh T range-Doctor's may tell you that Armour is quackery, unscientific, cannot be properly monitored, but then neither can levothyroxine. the blood tests may look better under levothyroxine but often the women on it still feel like sh!t. Doctors are still are really sure about how the endocrine system works it's anot an exact science and I find that the potency of levothyroxine is not properly monitored.

Levothyroxine used to be expensive compared to Armour. There was a war between the the companies and I think that Armour got paid off. There was a lot of messing around with potency and availability. So now I am back on Levothyroxine, it' cheap now but I can't be bothered to take it. If I have to be specific apart from all the other conditions I know that I have to take it when my poop looks like sheep's droppings. My sister is also hypothyroid and we both have almost identical symptoms. She thinks that Levothyroxine helps I don't think it helps much. I have tried others - synthroid etc. but really it's only the Armour that works, it just lifts my mood. There is another natural like Armour (begins with a W).
You can got to an Apotheke and get them to mix it for you, but it isn't cheap.

I had hypothyroidism for years before being diagnosed, it did not show up in the blood tests.

In a way I am a believer in going along with what nature intended. So many women are found to be hypothyroid yet they feel fine.


Most people thought that I was hyper, I can't keep still, but I am hypo. One of the biggest signs was an inability to get warm, I was always cold. The hot flashes took care of that- they started this year. Weight problems suck. I have to do an awful lot of exercise like cycling 20 miles a day to get my metabolism going. I am also mentally much slower than I used to be, but that is partly attributable to Pseudotumor Cerebri from Minocycline.

So yes I have loads to say about hypothyroidism but it's all moan, moan, moan.

I will now go and take my levothyroxine-I haven't taken it for a couple of days.............

I am going to ask my doctor for Armour again- although I don't think that my insurance will like it

http://www.thecompounder.com/alterna...alance/thyroid


http://www.thecompounder.com/alterna...hyroid-madness

I am going to ask for synthroid. At least this one has T4 AND T3.

It is crazy how so many doctors have absolutely no clue of what it is going on. I don't have a choice to take the hormone, my gland is slowly shrinking.

Soon enough I won't have it anymore, and what? What the hell I am gonna do if I can't control it until then?

I am back to 175, I'll see how it is. Before the pregnancy, I have been tested and my GP told me I was fine. During the pregnancy, the numbers went pretty high so the endo doc reduced it slowly to 125. But to be honest, 3 months after the birth, I am not feeling good. I am sweating like crazy with cold feet and low body temperature. It could all passed on the Post-partum but since I had the same thing for a year after the first pregnancy, and with the Hashimoto, it is definitely not post-partum.

A lot of women who start having hypo after the pregnancy are not diagnose properly because doctors put it on the post-part. and depression.

So if I listen my doctor, I'll be on a low level of T4 and feel like shit. If I listen myself, I'll be on a hight level of T4 and feel much better.

Now if I can get T3, I'll feel on top of the moon.

I haven't had time to read the whole thread, however, there is a natural proven metaboliser that increases thyroid activitiy, Sea Kelp. Sea Weeds contain Iodine, your body can only hold so much of it and it is contained in the thyroid gland, when you have too much Iodine in your system, the thyroid works harder to get rid of it, hence increases your metabolism in the process....