Thyroid issues causing severely sore areas in muscles/ligaments?

[Haggisfish]

Hi I know there are a few posters who have thyroid issues who post on here-I was hoping some of you might be kind enough to tell me about whether you suffer from intensely painful areas in your muscles/ligaments? And if you do, do you have many other thyroid symptoms?

I have these odd pains with no obvious reason, and dr thinks they may be thyroid related. However, my pulse is about right and I think I'm too skinny to be underactive. Any other either skinny underactives or overactives with sore muscles?!
Thank you
Haggis

Btw she is doing a full blood count and thyroid check, including antibodies.

And calcium!

I lost all strength in my legs when I was first diagnosed with an overactive thyroid. My legs would literally not function. If I miss a wee of my meds I have a period. Tis a very strange thing the thyroid.

I had this and it turned out to be a vitamin D deficiency - there is some link between thyroid issues and Vitamin D levels.

I am a skinny underactive. Anaemia is part of thyroid and I recently discovered anaemia can cause muscle pain, shortness of breath, difficult to raise your arms. It seems to me that all of my health problems are put down to thyroid. Including earache can't quite get my head round that.
My leg soreness/breathlessness is only occasional tho. Not constant. Its odd. Some days I can walk for miles, then the same walk is such a struggle, then ok again.

Sorry to answer more fully - I have hashimotos. It took a long time from diagnosis to get stable medication levels. In the middle of this I started feeling like an old lady. My legs felt incredibly weak, I couldn't pick up my 2yo, if I did any low impact exercise like going for a walk my muscles would all stiffen up and my joints creaked. I had 6 months of high dose vitamin D, and since then I've taken a daily vitamin d tablet and (touch wood) been ok.

I also went very skinny in the initial stage of hashimotos. The antibodies cause you to swing between under active and over active, so before I started medication I lost three stone without trying.

I don't think it will be vit d as I take a high dose sublingual spray and have done for a while. Thank you for your answers.

It's not clear from your posts whether you actually have a diagnosis of a thyroid condition. However, these symptoms are very common in untreated or under-treated hypothyroidism, but usually dismissed by GPs as fibromyalgia.

Sorry, no I don't have a diagnosis at the moment, but my gp says thyroid imbalance can cause pains like I'm having. They are just so specific in area and so painful! My gp mentioned fibromyalgia but the tender spots are in the wrong places and I'm not really overly tired. She has ordered a blood test, especially when I said I sometimes felt my thyroid was slightly swollen and tender. Thank you for your replies-I think I'm lucky to have a good gp.

Hello everyone just a few more queries! I have my blood test results back and I have thyroid antibodies tperoxide of 185 (range 0-34) and tsh of 2.9(range 0.3 -4.2) so it looks like some sort if immune thyroid issue. I have realised that the sore throat and lump in throat feeling I have been having are probably my thyroid! Bizarrely the sore muscles have gone but the sore throat and lump are back. I seem to oscillate between the two sets of symptoms. I'm going back to gp soon to ask for more thyroid bloods and an ultrasound of my thyroid but I think they will say because my tsh is in range that they don't want to do anymore. Any advice?! Does anyone else's thyroid hurt them? Thank you!

I'm a historian not a biochemist, but you appear to have Hashimoto's Disease (auto immune thyroiditis), evidenced by positive TPO antibodies. The oscillating between two sets of symptoms is absolutely classic, as are the other things you list in your post.

When you go back to the doc, ask for your FT4 and FT3 to be checked and also for vitamin B12 and folate, ferritin and vitamin D, as these are often low in your situation. You need all of these vits and mins to be optimal for thyroid hormone replacement to work well.

As you are auto-immune, you also need a gluten free diet. This will starve the antibodies out and relieve your symptoms, although sooner rather than later you will need thyroid hormone replacement of some sort.

Lots of info and support on the ThyroidUK forum at www.healthunlocked.com.

Thanks rockin. I have done lots of reading, but I think my gp will be resistant to treat me as my tsh is within range. I shall go in armed with decent research!

Read, learn, challenge!

I had this before my underactive thyroid was diagnosed. I wrote all my symptoms (weight gain, achy joints, fatigue, thinning hair) off as having a newborn and probably PND, I felt about 60 and everything was a massive effort. It was only when I developed a goitre that I realised and went to my gp. The achiness was the first symptom to go when I started treatment.

Two things helped me with that type of pain you describe. Gluten free diet and large doses Vit D. Just because you take a large dose now doesn't mean it will be enough for YOU. I didn't think I could possibly have a vit D deficiency because I work outside with horses so spend hours out in the sun every day but since I've taken it over the past year and had a couple of blood tests for it, I now realise I do need high level supplementation, I just increased from 2,500 IU to 5000IU and hope that this winter there will be none of the seasonal tennis and golfers elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome which I have suffered from for more than 5 winters now. It clears up every spring/summer when the sun comes out.

Thanks everyone. I do take a high dose sublingual vitamin d after I read loads of research about it. Contemplating gluten free, but it seems such a hassle...will try as low gluten as I can while not irritating my family!