Underactive Thyroid - tired/bad days? Is this normal

[BabySocksNeverStayOn]

I have been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid a year ago. I'm on 75mg of Levothyroxine and I'm largely feeling much better. I feel great most of the time, but every 3 weeks or so (no set pattern, just general observation) I get a few bad/tired days. The kind where I'm exhausted when I wake and it's lasts all day (brain fog/muscle aches) I'd just like to know if this is normal and is something I just have to get used to having an underactive thyroid?! Like I say, Most of the time I feel great and I've just taken up the c25k challenge which has made me feel amazing. I just hate those bad days

I do have tried days, but not entirely sure they're related to the hypothyroidism; they are certainly not the bone-crushing exhaustion I used to have pre-thyroxine thankfully!

Are you getting your levels checked regularly?

Newly diagnosed under active here too, but i was put on 50 for two weeks then up to 100 so it sounds like your under prescribed which is apparently a major problem with Gps . Try going on the Thyroid patient website TPA they give really good advice I am really hoping its not normal as I am hoping at last I will have some energy back and well done you for giving me some hope with your 25k challenge

Thanks for your replies. Doctor is sure I'm on right levels, sadly I have no idea what they are. My tired days are still pretty bone-crushing though.

Agree that your levothyroxine dose is probably on the low side - I only feel more like normal now on 100mg, after being on 50mg for about a year because doc said blood test results showed I was 'fine'..... I was not fine, I was exhausted and struggling with memory and concentration problems causing me much stress in my work. I hope you get some help soon.

Thanks Ruby. I suppose the best thing to do is get my last blood test results and see what they are.

I have joined the TPA website and see what info I can get from there.

Many thanks for all your help.

I thought I'd seen this post somewhere else lol.

You need to find out what your levels are - ask your GP for a copy of your results with the reference ranges or, if you're in to see him, ask him for the results/ranges and just write them down.

If you post them on here and/or TPA you'll get lots of advice and hopefully evidence your GP can't ignore to support an increase.

There's an awful lot of under-medicated people out there.

Am I allowed to ask for a copy of my results? Thanks for your help.

I have also had low vitamin D so been making the most of the sunny days! I think there is a connection between your body's ability to use the levothyroxine and vit D so that may be worth looking at.

Ruby my endo in Australia said exactly the sane thing and prescribed me a horse-dose of Vit D for one year.

Sane=same

Did it make a difference Poppy?

Ruby, I can't say with any degree of certainty because I proceeded to have DD and haven't had uninterrupted sleep in 16 months, so I'm a zombie most of the time!

I'm still taking it though, as it's a safe supplement and this particular deficiency has potential nasty consequences.

Of course you are ? this is your data and the data protection legislation says you are entitled to it. It?s just that most people (a) don?t know that and (b) don?t bother to ask. Then you get told you?re ?normal? when you?re not!

I actually had an endo tell me that no professional judgment was required to interpret blood tests. He told me that if the results come back within the reference range then there is no issue. I ran like the wind from that one!

Ask for a copy of your results with the reference ranges. Depending on how long this has been going on, you could ask for all results over the last two years, or the last five years.

Thanks RockinD. I will try to get my results and then see if they really are within 'normal'.

Interesting about Vitamin D. Thanks for the info.

there's never an easy solution is there!

I'm overactive and can have a few days, every now and then, where I feel tired and a bit out of sorts. I realised, a while ago, it comes about a week or 10 days before my period. I just put it down to something hormonal. This is just a guesss though.

I still have far too many dog-tired days even though my TSH is 2. something most of the time. I need to summon up the courage to speak my GP about it. I think I feel best when my TSH is really low. At 4 I am really struggling ("death warmed up" feeling) but still bloody "subclinical"!!

Interesting Ruby about vit D/ thyroxine connection- I must investigate that! I've ALWAYS feel better when I've been in the sun, to the extent that I hardly need to take my thyroxine when we're on holiday in say Spain. I grew up in SW France and always supposed that I was "set" at a certain amount of sun. Needless to say I have felt utterly shite since about last June, with the old sinus issues rearing their ugly head and perpetual headache. Bit of sun like we've had for the last few weeks and poof! all much better. Weird.

watching with interest as after 2 years of feeling awful/visits to GP/an endo who told me my symptoms cannot possibly be thyroid related and rather bizarrely diagnosed IBS.... i finally got a trial of levothyroxine from private GP, have now done 6 months on 100mcg and feeling much more human... but now trying to persuade NHS gp to prescribe... they've agreed to 75mcg, very reluctantly, so will be interesting to see how the change in dose goes... duchesse i was on the floor with TSH of 3.8 six months ago, had blood tests done last week while feeling normal (not superhuman by any stretch, just able to cope with the day) and TSH is 0.37...

Hypothyroid can produce IBS/intolerance symptoms as certain enzymes only work at very narrow temperature ranges, and if you have low thyroid levels you usually have low temperature as well. It makes me really cross how unwilling GPs are to diagnose thyroid problems, even with a family history. It's so easy and cheap to treat -a month's worth costs about £1.20!

Agree with ruby about feeling bad when my blood tests are supposedly fine. I had to be assertive with my doctor and asked to have my dose increased. She did , 8 weeks ago. Went back yesterday for another blood test, results next week and another appointment with doctor. I asked for my previous blood test results and was given them. Apparently they treat our condition better in America.

unfortunately as every NHS GP i've seen about it has told me, they like to treat the blood results rather than the patient, and they seem to think this is a good thing. the endo i saw said that my blood tests said i should be feeling absolutely brilliant, and that i must be depressed, or unable to cope with 3 children, or not eating a good diet, or just unrealistic about how a woman of my age (40) should feel.... the blood tests said i should feel great, so despite no history of hypochondria, they wrote me off as a whinger.

My (former) GP tried to put me on antidepressants and convince me it was a normal age thing for women ( I was 37 when I went to see him!!). It wasn't until I finally after 6 years of trying got pregnant that an obstetric endocrinologist finally put me on thyroxine- I've felt sooo much better ever since- can't thank that woman enough!

This thread is close to my heart! apologies for long post.

Until GP's in the UK get to grips with Hypo/Hashimotos we are all it appears fobbed off. Let me explain if I can with my experience. I was diagnosed about 18 months ago, by accident with a really good locum GP who happened to be really thorough, before that I felt like I was dying except not every day, weird. I also had chronic low back pain which I now think was my adrenals.

Initially I was on 25mg now I'm on 75mg, but this is the thing, I still feel crap most days. I hobble out of bed, try to to a stressful job with brain fog and after sitting at night feel like someone twice my age with all the aching when I go to bed. I am constantly constipated (sorry tmi) and I have never weighed as much in my life and haven't lost anything after being on levo...

Now, after much research I like others take Vitamin D spray (great from amazon lasts 90 days costs £5) I also take magnesium (without it Vit D won't work properly) and also Selenium which helps T4 and T3 conversion. Yes I know the thyroid and it's hormones are really complex which I think is why GP's aren't interested asmif you are in 'the range' they are happy. I feel a little better but I know I'm still not completely better.

So after more research I come across the drug everyone took years ago (before the cheaper synthetic hormone-Levo was available) and this is widely used in America, called NDT or Natural Dessicated Thyroid. It's not licensed here but some people in the UK do buy it or if lucky have their GP write a private script for it. So next time I see my GP I shall be investigating though I am sure it will be a battle as NDT (Armour or Westthroid branded make) is more expensive and they will tell you as it's 'natural' it's unstable, but if you look further on the net many people feel better and here's the thing, actually lose weight and no longer have the aches and pains. Levo is only T4 NDT is both T3 and T4, I will stop now as I must be boring you all!

Also, forgot to add, this is an interesting link..

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

Sky blue, I am in us and on desiccated. Works much better for me than Levo. Hope u get to give it a go.