Underactive thyroid - any info?

[greyskythinker]

I have just been diagnosed as being borderline underactive thyroid. My GP has advised having blood tests in another 4 weeks before she decides whether to put me on thyroxin.

Has anyone any experience?

Are there side affects to thyroxin?
Can I do anything to kick-start my thyroid without resorting to medication?

My GP says that if I go onto thyroxin I will be on it for the rest of my life. Although it would hopefully help to sort my weight probs, it sounds scary.

hello there

i was diagnosed as having severely underactive thyroid about 3 weeks ago. Have been on Thyroxine 50mg for two weeks. Feeling no better as yet. I am still on the antidepressants but still getting anxious (I was anxious before I was diagnosed with thryoid problems), which isn't the usual symptom of hypothyroid. However, I have heard that this can be caused by push pull of thyroid as it periodically goes into overdrive while it burns itself out. Not sure if this is true or I am actually anxious for other reasons and need to face those. Just wondered if anyone else had similar symptoms. I also have recurring cystitis and wonder if this may or may not be linked to underperforming thyroid.

Hi

I was diagnosed at beginning of Jan with Underactive Thyroid casued by Hashimoto's disease which was kick started by my pregnancy.

Took 50mcg for 6 weeks, just been upped to 100mcg. ONly difference so far is that I can stay awake past 8pm! Other than that still suffering from painful joints. Apparently it can take about 6 weeks for thyroxine to be totally effective. There are several threads on here about underactive thyroid which are useful and suggestions about when to take medication ie not with iron tabs and not alongside coffee or tea.

HTH a bit, check back as I'm sure someone will come along with more advice.

I was diagnosed with a very underactive thyroid about 9 months ago.

Greyskythinker, i think that your symptoms tell you more than your blood test results, if you are having symptoms like fatigue, aching, feeling the cold, just feeling really miserable etc then I would seriously consider taking the medication, from what I've read some people with officially 'borderline' results really benefit. If you're not symptomatic don't take the pills (but maybe have regular blood tests and watch out for symptoms), also if your thyroid has been underactive for a while you might have been living with feeling under par for so long that you don't notice it - so take a good long look and maybe ask others that know you how they honestly think you are.

Thyroxine mimics your natural thyroid hormone, its main side affects are around dosage (ie if you take too much you get overactive thyroid symptoms). The idea is that you start on a low dose and build up (it can take a while to get it right). You can start taking it and then stop, although i think you need to cut down gradually, but in a lot of cases the underlying problem isn't one that goes away so it is likely that if you need the drug you will need it for life (this isn't always the case some times post partum hypothyroidism only needs short term treatment).

Being on a drug for life is scary, but if you need it it is worth it. The thing that I found most frustrating was the lack of any questioning as to why my thyroid had packed up - the only answer you seem to get is that it is just one of those things!

There are a lot of internet resources, but be warned that people tend to chat about the worst case scenario, for a lot of people (including myself) we take the pills and feel much better (eventually!).

Tinape, not sure about anxiety. Some people do have an overactive thyroid before it goes underactive but if yours is underactive now it sounds like the anxiety might be something else, I'm sure the stress of being diagnosed etc isn't helping either. Hope things settle down. Good luck

Whatironing,
Thank you for this. My symptoms are tiredness and inability to lose weight, as well as aches & pains and complete loss of libido (for last 2+ years), although I am usually hot as opposed to cold. My DS is 9mnths old and I only stopped BF 8 weeks ago, so they are all symptoms which could be put down to being a new mum.

I am approx 4 stone overweight, but despite a really healthy diet and training for a 1/2 marathon I cannot shift it at all! (hmm - training for 1/2 marathon and feeling tired - how odd!)

Hi, yes they could be put down to being a new mum - but they could also be caused by your thyroid! DS was about 7 months when I was diagnosed and I can remember feeling a bit bad that I'd been blaming my feeling rotten on him!!

One word of warning, I wouldn't let yourself think of it as a magic bullet for your weight. It might help but it might well not and weight that you have already put on might remain hard to get off (which I know from experience can be disappointing!).

After your next blood tests try to talk symptoms rather than numbers with your GP and see where you get to

Am hugely impressed with the half marathon! When are you running it?

Hi. You've already had some great responses.

I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid when my DD was about 6 months old. I was exclusively BF a large baby and quite frankly expected to feel exhausted as a new mum. It took my mum (who doesn't see me every day) to point out that I had a large lump in my throat which turned out to be a goitre. My TSH was 91 which really impressed my GP! Thyroid function basically nil.

To reiterate what others have said, I don't believe that there are any side effects of being on the right dose of thyroxine, you just need to avoid tipping over into hyperthyroidism which has more nasty side effects. I found the British Thyroid Foundation website a useful source of info.

I would certainly suggest that you ask your GP to share some numbers with you. The easiest to understand seems to be your TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). Although if you search for previous posts on the subject I've seen some good stuff from other posters on the other tests they run. If they are still saying that you are borderline, you may be within "normal range" but still not right for you IYSWIM. See this link for details.

One thing that you might want to consider, although probably not instantly with a 9 month baby and a low libido (which I can also relate to BTW), is that you would definitely want your thyroid truly under control if you wanted to try for another baby. My endocrinologist was happy to tell me I was now "normal" with a TSH of 3.6 (after 6 months on 75mcg thyroxine) but, when I pushed him about the US range mentioned on the link above, he conceded that I would want my TSH to be nearer 1 before I tried to conceive another baby.

Sorry, that's a bit of an essay, hope that some of it helped. And just finally, one thing to bear in mind is that if you are diagnosed with hypothyroidism you will at least get free prescriptions for life! Not a reason to aspire to the condition but it certainly helps!

oo i have an under active thyroid also but i take medicine perscribed by a natropathic docter so no chemicals worked a treat stopped taking while preg and b/f as something in them made me sick so will need to start again but they were great had loads of energy and lost weight sex life back the lot !! all with herbal medicine

and being anxious is linked to thyroid probs

I was diagnosed after alot of hassle with an uactive thyroid after DS2. My original NHS GP decided to do nothing when my TSH was 8.5, I felt terrible. I changed GP and in the interim, out of sheer desperation went to a private GP. My TSH had dropped to 4.0 but still felt terrible and its now .85 or similar and I feel mainly OK. Energy takes a dip late afternoon though.

I started off on thyroxine but now take Armour Thyroid which seems to suit me better. This is prescribed by a private doctor and is imported from the US. It is the precursor to Thyroxine and is porcine thyroid (smells vile)

However a confusing factor may have been that at the same time I had (and still have) fibroids and was anaemic so many of the symptoms could apply to anaemia as well and may have been why I thought I was not doing well on thyroxine.

I have sorted out the anaemia by taking iron and seeing a homoeopath for a while. I have also read that heavy periods go hand in hand with a u/active thyroid.

i learnt that the diagnosis and treatment of uactive thyroid is a minefield and you need to get a sympathetic doctor who does not only go by the test results but also the symptoms and who will be willing to try thyroxine.

There are some good websites out there such as one by Mary Shomon, (a US one) plus a couple of UK ones. One is very orthodox the other a bit more alternative.

Good luck.

PS Should add that low libido has not been a symptom for me.

Would like to get Armour prescribed on the NHS but my current GP though really nice probably wouldn't. It is quite costly £20 per month.

But I think I am right in saying that diabetes is or used to be treated with porcine insulin so that idea is not so strange.

Whatironing, 1/2 marathon in 2 1/2 weeks time in Paris! Am mad.

Twospecialgirls, How do you find a natropathic doctor? What was the herbal medicine you were taking?

My thyroid started to pack up after a car accident which broke the spine on one of my neck vertebrae. By the time I was pregnant 6 years later I had gained 6 stone - after breast-feeding I had lost 2 and a half stone, so all the hormones must have improved things. Then when I felt as if my body was falling apart around my ears the fight started. I would recommend Mary Shomon's books - one of them has a brilliant questionnaire for symptoms - very useful for recording all the things that have being happening for so long that you can forget them. The US recommendation is 1 microgram for every pound of body weight at normal weight. I was forbidden to increase my dose myself by a GP. Thinking that if diabetics only checked their insulin when the GP ordered a blood test they would be dying like flies I upped it a little and got the energy to get angry. I then went back to another GP at the practice and had a rant. I was then allowed to up it gradually under supervision. Also, TSH doesn't tell the full story and both free and combined T3 and T4 analysis should be performed. There have been interesting articles in the BMJ which state that many of the people who give blood to create the reference range may have borderline underactivity. Another point is that a diagnosis entitles you to an exemption from prescription charges on medical grounds - could be a reason why GP's are slow to diagnose if this has a financial impact on the practice.

Sorry for the rant - I'm just annoyed about feeling that I've lost about 15 years due to this sodding illness!!

Thanks for all the posts. Reassuring to know I'm not the only one. Still have on and off days. It used to be that my emotional state was the thing that was most off kilter but also beginning to feel more of the physical symptoms that may be due to me worrying or just the thyroid. I think I have sleep apneoa where on occasion I wake up with need to clear airways. Had this before I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, but I understnad from some websites they are connected, and thankfully that with an improving thyroid symptoms get better. Here's hoping. Just wish I could stop this mood see-sawing. It's exhausting!

Hi citylover...which private gp did you go to ? My gp wont treat mine..........TSH 6 as he says within the reference range but I am exhausted all the time and have 4 stone to lose. I snore and have high cholestorel and coonstant water infections too.

Help!

where do I go if my gp refuses to even consider the possibility of an underactive thyroid? I heard that a normal bloodtest often doesn't give enough evidence whereas if you go to a "specialist" things might well be different. It's just that my symptoms are so textbook...