I was diagnosed with Graves in July 2019. Finally came off Carbimazole in Sept 2022 (I had a baby May 2022 so endo kept me on low dose last year). I have now relapsed in Jan and am on 40mg daily.
I have missed my period this month - not pregnant, I’ve tested. I never had absent periods for the whole time I was on Carbimazole previously. Have any other females experienced this? Anxious about my fertility now.
I’m also quite unhappy about relapsing. I hoped coming off in Sept meant this was the end of it. I don’t feel too unwell, just really tired etc. Has anyone looked seriously into natural cures to Graves? I read online that endo’s just treat the thyroid, and not the actual autoimmune disease. Greatful for any success stories. Is 40mg quite high? I have no idea about my thyroid levels, they’ve never been explained to me so I wouldn’t understand them anyway, but I’m now really keen to start looking into it and trying to cure this.
Thanks all.
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Seabreeze3
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Graves is a poorly understood and badly treated auto immune disease and something has triggered your immune system to attack your body and it is when your immune system attacks your thyroid or your eyes you likely end up with a diagnosis of Graves Disease.
The thyroid is a major gland and so when under attack the symptoms experienced can be alarming, life threatening, and some just odd.
The most well rounded of all the websites I found is that of Elaine Moore and there is a section on alternative and more holistic treatment options and what you can do for yourself to try and mitigate further immune system upsets.
Disruption to you cycle is really common when thyroid abnormal & when medications are taken to increase / decrease levels. Being hyper tend to lead to lighter longer cycles & being hypo can cause heavy shorter cycles. fluctuating levels can cause unpredictable or absent cycles. There’s no single rule as every one of us is different & our symptoms don’t always manifest as the text books predict.
Try not to worry & focus on getting your levels at a stable level right for you & your cycle should settle.
People have looked a natural cures & although there are some remedies which help with symptoms temporarily none will successfully control thyroid levels which is what is important.
Lemon balm eg in a tea or tincture is popular & acetyl l carnitine can be tried to lower FT3.
In Main Steam treatment there in no method of treatment for the autoimmune aspect & it is a case of controlling levels until remission occurs.
Doctors suggest definitive solutions to prevent hyper permanently after relapses on long term carbimazole[18 month plus] - but those options involve irreversible treatment such as Radioactive iodine or surgery, which has high possibility of hypothyroidism. preferable option to some - not to all, you have to be comfortable with such decisions & fully informed.
Gluten issue can be common connected, you can test for gluten allergy and even on negative many benefit from strictly gluten diet (gluten intolerance).
40mg carbimazole is a fairly high dose, usually a starting dose, it will reduce - (60mg is considered daily max).
What’s important is the levels don’t drop to far & cause you to be hypo. Doctors tend to focus on TSH but this is unreliable & you need to ensure your carbimazole dose is adjusted by FT4 & FT3.
Do you have another blood test scheduled- this should be 6 weeks after starting medication.
Has you Graves been confirmed with TSI or TRab positive antibodies?
Also important to test folate, ferritin, b12 & Vit D3.
Do you track results? see what doctors are testing & I’d adjusting dose appropriately to results. Online access useful for this. If not get printed copies with ranges of all blood test results (legally entitled to)
Post on here and we can advise further. If doctors do not test everything there are private options as FT3 & all nutrients not always tested.
hi. I had severe graves. I got my period every 40 days but only for 1 day and it was super light. I was 47 when I got graves and thought it was menopause so I think u r younger than me. Anyhow yes very light period and longer distance from one period to the next. 3 months was my longest gap between periods as well. That happened a few times. Hope that helps but not having graves would be an even bigger help
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