Thyroid disease after pregnancy

[SpanielFace]

I found a swelling in my neck last night. I went to the doctors today & it's my thyroid gland. My GP thinks its likely that I have an underactive thyroid - I'm back next week for bloods & will be referred for an ultrasound. I had DS 9 months ago and have been feeling exhausted and achey ever since, despite the fact that he has been sleeping 12 hours pretty reliably since he was about 5 months old, so I have no real reason to be so tired. I've also been struggling to lose the weight I gained in pregnancy. So this might actually explain a lot!

Did anyone else on here have this condition? (I know it's very common in women). And if you developed it after pregnancy, did it resolve or are you on lifelong treatment? Did you find you lost weight with treatment?

My mum had this. She has to take thyroxin for the rest of her life, but gets free prescriptions. She lost loads of weight once she started taking it, and had lots more energy and less depression.

Thank you. I suspect it may be for life, but I have read that the form that is triggered by pregnancy can sometimes resolve by itself. Lifelong treatment is a bit daunting, but there's far worse conditions to have, I know. (Was quite worried when I felt the lump!).

I found out I had an under active thyroid when DS2 was about 14months old.

Mine has not been linked to pregnancy. It won't get better and I will take drugs for life for it. But I have heard you can have it for a short time after pregnancy and it go away.

I went to Drs because I felt depressed and crap. And got diagnosed after a blood test. I feel better than I did (3 years on). But still feel sluggish and depressed at times. I have not lost weight on Levothyroxine and weigh a stone more than when I was diagnosed with it my fault but its just so hard to lose it but so easy to put it on.

Sorry I can't really help answer your question but hopefully things will get better for now. I noticed a massive difference between how I coped with DS1 & DS2. I thought it was because DS2 was a little monkey as a baby and DS1 was and angel! Or that I was getting old (at 31!) nope is was my shonky thyroid!

Thanks Mary. I've not been able to understand it - DS is what everyone calls an "easy" baby. He's always smiling, he sleeps through without us ever having to do any sort of sleep training, he is a generally happy, placid little boy - and yet I just feel so tired all the time, sometimes so tired I just can't be bothered with him. I just want to sit on the sofa all day long, and everything aches - I sometimes struggle to get him out of his cot in the morning. I don't think I'm depressed, I just feel run down & tired, and like an old woman. (I'm 32!). In a way I feel happy that this has been picked up - if I hadn't felt the lump I probably wouldn't have gone to the doctor for ages, if at all. Obviously I'd rather have nothing wrong, but at least it means that it's not just how life is when you've had a baby. How long were you taking medication before you started to feel better?

My SIS developed an underactive Thyroid Gland after her 2nd DC was born, but she had no symptoms other then she noticed the skin on her hands was dry and her periods stopped.
She is still on Thyroxine, but her dosage recently has been reduced.

Good luck with the ultrasound and the blood test.

spaniel - I noticed a difference almost immediately but I don't know whether it was just from the relief of knowing I wasn't cracking up!
I had been prescribed anti D's and had googled their side effects and wasn't keen on taking them.

Honestly I was so pissed off with myself for not being able to diet (still can't) and for feeling like I couldn't be bothered with house/ kids/ friends / hobbies. I also couldn't concentrate and was irritable.

One of my friends said my face had changed when I'd started taking it she said it was back to normal. I'd not notice it had changed. Still don't really know what she meant!

The part about sitting on the sofa and not wanting to do anything rings a bell with me. Still feel like this some days.

My G.P who likes to use analogies, said that it affects everything including your perspective on things.
He said it was like if he rang me at 6.30 in the morning and woke me up and asked me to walk his dog, I'd be erm no chance. However, if he rang me at 8am and I'd had chance to wake up and have a shower get dressed and gave coffee I'd be more inclined to say yes. I think I know what he was getting at.
If my dose is right I'd have a better approach to life.

Have you been prescribed Levothyroxine? And have you been told how often you will need your blood testing?

Hi Mary. No, I've not had the blood tests yet so it's not confirmed. Something is clearly going on though, as my gland is swollen, to the point where you can feel it really easily. Given my symptoms she thinks its very likely that it's underactive, I don't think there's anyway it could be overactive given the way I feel. I'm a little nervous about the ultrasound as the other possibility is a tumour - but she did say that was very unlikely. I'm just not thinking about that possibility at the moment!

I'm glad you found treatment helped you. The irritability is interesting - I've been v irritable with DH recently, for no good reason. Also have no sex drive (I put that down to having a baby/breast feeding, but surely it should be returning by now? I stopped BF 3 months ago).

I went off sex as well.

Wishing you well with your diagnosis and treatment. Try not to worry.

Lumps on the Thyroid can be benign cysts, not always tumours OP.
I did have an overactive Thyroid years ago and the whole Thyroid swelled up into a goitre, as this is called. But I lost loads of weight depite being ravenously hungry and non-stop eating of high calorie foods. I became irrationally aggressive and irritable[ blush].

Not everybody gets the typical symptoms of over or under active Thyroid glands.

Your blood test should show what is going on, and the Ultrasound will be to look at the lump. Good luck.

Thanks Digerd. I certainly don't have those symptoms, but anything is possible! I knew someone who had an over active thyroid, and lost 4 stone without trying or even noticing until it became quite obvious. (He was a really tall man - always slim but ended up really thin). That's why I assumed it couldn't be over active, but if you don't always have typical symptoms then who knows? I'll report back when I've had these tests.

Hi spanielface, I was also diagnosed after pregnancy - about 6 months in i think. triggered by pregnancy but did not go away. Been 9 years so far. Good luck and hopefully (definitely) you will feel much better on meds!

me too.

there's a good UK web site that's worth reading.

The lump in the throat is quite normal as part of it.

www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/index.html

You will feel so much better on thyroxine.

It may take a couple of weeks to have any effect though. Also they are likely to start you on a low dose, then do monthly blood test to check your thyroid levels and raise dose accordingly. Took about 4 months to get my dose right and it was after that I felt normal again.

I knew a woman who was diagnosed with an overactive Thyroid gland but she didn't lose weight, she gained it. Her dr did say it was unusual.

The vast majority of symptoms of an underactive Thyroid is gaining weight and feeling sluggish even though my sis did not get these symptoms nor a lump. She was told she was very underactive and prescribed 125mcgs of Thyroxine immediately.

Hopefully you will get the blood tests results in a week and echo soon after or together. If you are diagnosed as underactive, it is easily treated.

I think the figure for postpartum thyroiditis is reckoned to be 10-15%, but many go undiagnosed and some do resolve. And with PPT it can vary between hypo and hyper. But it does give you a higher chance of developing long-term ie permanent hypothyroidism at some point. it seems to vary how soon. Hopefully you will get thyroxine now and feel much better soon.

When I was dx (hypothyroidism) I had a lump too (a goitre) which went quite quickly. It did take longer to get me on correct dose (now on 200mcg. I do feel better than on none, but also have a lot of other autoimmune things going on so not a good example). I did improve within weeks of starting on a vey low amount, weight fell off, and I had energy. Yay! It can take ages to get onto correct dose as often they will increase by small increments every few months. I was a bit further from postpartum -youngest was toddler - but looking back I was probably hyper and hypo (fluctuating) after ds2 was born, hypo after ds3. I have 4 'babies'.

Just read the dog-walking analogy. It made me laugh. No chance will I walk my GP's dog, even if he gives me lifelong thyroxine script. Ha, ha!

I think autoimmune fatigue is very particular, and not well understood by others. That feeling that you just don't have enough in the tank is ghastly, esp when dc are so young, and can just hit you like a brick

I do remember sis was showing some signs of overactivity on her 150 mcgs they upped it to < I'd had an overactive one so recognised the symptoms>, advised her to have her thyroid tested again, and results showed her dosage was too high so reduced it.

However, years on and they have reduced it to 75 now, but she never felt tired or sluggish and she is 66 now! She has always been full of energy and has excellent stamina levels.

Basketz
When he started with the dog walking story I thought he was crackers!

Mary, I was picturing my own GP phoning about his dog!! . I think though he's right about perspective Feeling you've nothing in the tank does change perspective.

So, results back: high TSH, high thyroid antibodies, low-normal thyroid hormone. So borderline, possibly incipient, but no treatment at the moment, retest in 3 months. Anyone have any thoughts? Could this really explain my symptoms - it seems unlikely to me if it's only borderline?

Maybe it's been under active and is on the mend (no idea if this is how it works)
Was hoping you'd get prescribed Levothyroxine to make you feel better.

Do you know what level your TSH was and the T4?

I was diagnosed with quite severe hypothyroidism at Xmas 2011, about 4 months after DS1 was born. With hindsight I'd say I was hyper- for a couple of months (had enough energy to sign up for Zumba 7 weeks postpartum and was constantly feeling irritable and on edge) and finally went to see my GP after putting on a stone in 3 weeks!!

Have been taking thyroxine ever since and I have found that I need my dose to be at the high end of normal to feel OK so perhaps that is also the case for you, or else it was just a postpartum thing and is returning to normal as others have suggested.

Re weight, once I found the correct dose, all the extra weight fell off and I felt brilliant. My levels still fluctuate a bit and paradoxically have found that if my thyroxine dose is too high then I actually start gaining weight and feeling low and sluggish...

Hi spaniel, your results would absolutely explain the way you are feeling. If possible, have a look at a website called www.stopthethyroidmadness.com gives good explanations. Can't believe you are not medicated. Just goes to show how little some gp's understand about thyroid disease. Hope you get it sorted.

I've spoken to the GP that i originally saw today - she is part time so it was a different one I spoke to the other day. Because I have symptoms (we spoke at length about how I was feeling), she's going to start me on low dose thyroxine and retest in 4-6 weeks. She thinks that because I have high antibodies I'm just in the earlier stages. So fingers crossed it makes a difference!