Underactive thyroid symptoms but levels within range

[lyrasgirl]

I saw an endocrinologist this week to get blood tests as I have many symptoms of an underactive thyroid: overwhelming tiredness, hair loss, slow thinking, forgetfulness, irritability, dry skin, sensitivity to cold, zero libido.

I picked up the results today and they are within the normal ranges again. This happened just over a year ago when I went with the same symptoms and a different endo at a different clinic kept telling me I was depressed (I'm not), and of course I should expect to be tired because I'm 40 and have two small children . I'm fairly sure nearly falling asleep at the wheel at 3pm on the school run is not a normal level of tiredness, I'm sleeping well at night.

Could any of you thyroid experts out there shed any light on whether the levels below could possibly be causing my symptoms before I take them to the endo tomorrow. I'm living overseas so I'm not sure the ranges are the same as in the UK.

TSH (ICD-9: L69) 3,660 uIU/ml (min 0,270 - max 4,200)
FT3 (ICD-9: 055) 2,59 pg/ml (min 2,00 - max 4,40)
FT4 (ICD-9: 069) 1,13 ng/dl (min 0,93 - max 1,70)
anty-TPO (ICD-9: O09)

The principle is that if you are unmedicated and healthy, your TSH should be around 1, and your FT3 and FT4 in the top third of the reference range.

On that basis, your TSH is higher than optimal and your FT3 and FT4 are too low.

T4 converts to T3 and if you don't have enough T4 at the beginning of the reaction, you won't have enough at the end of it.

Have you tried taking your temperature first thing in the morning before you get out of bed? If it's regularly below 36.5 and you are not malnourished or suffering from alcoholism or liver disease, then you are almost certainly hypothyroid.

Also, do you still have the outer third of your eyebrows? That's another sign.

Are you able to say where abouts in the world you are. In most of the developed world I understand that the top of the range is generally about 2.5, but yours is higher.

D

Thanks RockinD, that's what I thought. I saw the endo this morning and, as I suspected, she initially saw no reason to give me any medication and said my thyroid levels wouldn't be the cause of my symptoms. She's going to test my iron, calcium and vit D levels. My blood pressure was quite low, 90 over 70, but still normal.

I then mentioned that the top of the range was different in other countries and my levels could be considered to be hypothyroid elsewhere. I'm in Eastern Europe. She agreed to give me 25mg of Euthyrox to see if it helped but was still doubtful. However, I'm hoping that this will improve my symptoms. Fingers crossed.

I'll try taking my temperature each morning to see what results I get, I'm definitely not malnourished nor an alcoholic :) I've always been fairly healthy, I try to keep fit and I'm a healthy weight. But I just haven't had the energy to do as much exercise as usual for the last few weeks, I'm down to pilates once a week.

Interesting you should mention the eyebrows as I've noticed they've been getting thinner for some time, particularly the outer third. I use Benefit brow zings to try to cover it up.

Thyroid gland signs or symptoms in females are certainly more typical compared to they have been in males. Thousands of females throughout the globe are afflicted by some sort or other of thyroid gland problems and plenty of these individuals are uninformed that the signs or symptoms are generally thyroid gland associated. It is often noted that One out of Seven men and women have problems with some sort or other of thyroid condition. Why don't we have a look at exactly what the thyroid genuinely does as well as what kind of signs or symptoms continue if it's not necessarily working appropriately.

Even though there are lots of health conditions related to the thyroid gland, the 2 most popular are generally Hyperthyroidism and also An underactive thyroid gland.

Hypothyroidism can be generally known as the under-active thyroid gland and also takes place when there's an underproduction of T3 along with T3 thyroid body's hormones. Frequently it's because of the thyroid becoming eliminated as a way to deal with significant hyperthyroidism or even cancers. Frequent thyroid gland signs and symptoms in women of all ages tend to be: Fatigue, Unusual Body Weight, Baldness, Deficiency of Interest In Sex, Dried-out skin, Sleeping disorders, Your inability to tolerate Chilly temperature.

A typical strategy for An underactive thyroid is actually the usage of 'beta' Blockers. They can lower anxiousness, tremor, irritations and minimize easy cardiovascular rate. The medication Methimazole can be employed to stop thyroid gland endocrine activity. For additional extreme instances, Radioactive iodine healing is applied.
www.thyroidsymptomsblog.com/thyroid-symptoms-in-men/

I think a TSH of 3.6 could be significant, also the T4 is low.

I've stumbled upon this thread from pregnancy in search of answers, sorry for the hijack!
.ranfordbill you do seem to have some knowledge, may I run some stuff past you and anyone else?!

I've suffered with underactive thy since university but had a horrid time initially as was thrown onto prozac then seroxat before sometime later being diagnosed with underactive thy. In some respects I feel the 'damage was done' as the impact on my mental health and confidence at that age was huge, not least be bad reactions to the seroxat which I was then addicted to.

15 years later and I (and the medical community) have learnt a lot though I still am unravelling the mystery of my mental health issues - me or thyroid? I've had mind blips several times and the thyroid had often.been bad at the same time. In the early days I wonder if 'good' for me was below 2 but whether this was followed or not I'm not sure. I do know that a year of constipation a few years ago turned out to be due to a doctor thinking levels were ok, only to be told after suffering that they'd prefer a better tsh. I had a severe bout of depression linked to extreme work stress and then thyroid (not sure which first) three years ago which needed long term cbt and betablockers to solve. What was interesting is I remember a period of feeling very well and extremely happy before - hypomanic at times.

I found betablockers helped at uni when coming off seroxat, and secretly took remaining tablets at times later before plucking up the courage to ask.for them in my early 20's so I am really pleased and intrigued to see you say this is a good method of help.

My current problem is that after a year last year of focussed healthy living and seeing an improvement in my levels to be able to drop t4 slightly I then became pregnant. I had a peculiarly rocky ride as my tsh rocketed to 5.5 at 8 weeks despite a +25 rise, then 11 at 13 weeks after another 25 rise (dont get me started on the inability to get t4 done!) to 175.(am quite petite too) It was 9 and t4 16 a few days later atmy first scan and obs consultant so my extreme stress about baby was eased a little. So he wacked me up to 225 and the next 4 weeks I felt awful, very tired and misrrable, anxious etc. I had slapped cheek non immunity going on at same time banning me from work (thankfully) but additional other complicated stress too, and my pregnancy/thyroid/just me paranoia made me rather crazy. The levels at 17 weeks were tsh 0.1 and t4 21 but as I felt no better they kept it at 225.

A week later I began to recover my brain and mood and though was ok to return for last week of term at 21 weeks following all clear for slapped cheek. Tsh was then 0.01 t4 20. However the stress was phenomenal as soon as at work and I went into anxiety over drive which has not recovered over the last two weeks, resulting in a referral to perinatal psych due to my agitated and obsessive behaviour. They've dropped me back to 200, which was 3 days ago. I was taking the withdrawn teva brand up to 13 weeks so may have been over medicated - I now hope so I know its not my crazy body!

My question is does anyone have experience dealing with the mood difficulties associated with the swinging levels - I feel there seems to be a good delay of 5/6 weeks on the brain or is it that my ability to handle stress is affected - I have a very high stress job teaching in asd and sen which I love but seems to be currently causing unmanageable stress also linked to the slapped cheek stress. Obviously not taking betablockers at mo and they are advising perhaps not returning to work.in Sept for the last 2 months of preg which of course i find as equally worrying as going back as I've never taken time off for any of it even when at my worse! (some how keeping going stopped me from completely collapsing plus I never wanted to let it beat me following uni experiences - fear of failure)

I am.currently mood swinging daily (not surprised they test people suspected of bipolar!) From extreme agitation and distress, to wanting to write a phd, to lethargy and misery and yes I know preg hormones don't help! Any thoughts?

I worry I've dropped to 200 but my tsh was non existent so fear another mental drop in a couple of weeks. I also wonder if physically being more active (as I.will be at work in Sept) will impact on my levels too? More 'petrol in the engine needed?' I'm definately suffering from the affects of the stress of the first 6 months of this pregnancy initially due to thinking my thyroid was affecting my baby and then the other constant medical worries and though feel really positive about birth do fear for my mental health now and after.

Thanks for reading, sorry for rambling :)

Hi I have no experience to give you advice but the health unlocked forum is very good and full of people with a vast amount of knowledge and experience of hypothyroid issues