I was diagnosed with an under active thyroid in May (I was 47 at the time) after at least a year or so of feeling exhausted all the time, hair was thinning and I felt very low.
I was initially put on 100 micro grammes of levothyroxine.
During a work trip overseas in August I had to go to the emergency department as I had such bad palpitations which lasted for hours. At the hospital they did lots of tests and felt that my dosage may be too high and recommended taking the dosage down to 75 micro grammes until I went back to my specialist.
On return I went to see the specialist and he changed my dosage to 75 which I have been on ever since. He advised me that my levels seems to have stabilised and to take this dosage until May and then go back to see him.
I went to see my GP due to muscle / bone pains which have been making it very difficult to sleep and have been getting progressively worse over the last year. I also told him I did not think the medication for the under active thyroid was making me feel any better and ended up in tears in his surgery. He informed me he thought I was depressed and prescribed me anti depressants (low dosage) to take to see if they would help.
I have been continuing to put weight on, still feel exhausted and my hair is falling out more than before.
I am going to get another blood test next week and make an appointment with a new specialist that someone has recommended to me to see whether they can help.
Any other suggestions would be welcome - I just want to feel better again :(!
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Bristol1965
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Hi Bristol1965, have you ever had your T3 tested? Sometimes we just don't convert well from T4 to T3. I've been taking thyroid meds since August 2011 and asking the same question. I've only just realised it's vitally important to look at vits and minerals too. When you're hypo you tend to have lower stomach acid and therefore can't absorb nutrients from food so well.
Your Vit B12 Iron Ferritin Folate Vit D3 need to be high in the ranges. Get your doctor to include these in your blood tests. If you have any anaemia your meds aren't going to work.
I changed from Levo to Armour which I fund myself, I gave Levo 2 years. I started to see results in terms of swelling going down and a little weight loss or at least more stable, but I didn't feel better in myself. I've recently found out that I have pernicious anaemia and my iron is at the bottom of the range. I'm supplementing and hope to improve over the months. I now get injections for PA and I think once these are all optimal I'll feel a lot better. I was blaming it all on my thyroid meds!
Take your morning temps before you get out of bed. If they are way below 37 there's a good chance you are still hypo. I in fact had terrible palps through low hydroxine and they didn't improve until I got to 175 mcg of levo. 75 mcg is really a starting dose.
Thank you Helcaster - I will ask them to check as I am not sure if they have tested T3.
I did read somewhere about the B12 so this I will definitely check with the specialist when I see them. I do feel like I need supplements, however have been worried / confused about what to take - especially as people tell me to be careful of anything with iodine in.
Thanks for the advice and hoping that the specialist I see next week can help with the medication / change if necessary.
I too benefitted from taking supplements and I'm also receiving B12 injections and am on T3 only. I'm not quite 'there' yet, but have seen great improvements.
Hi Bristol 1965, glad to help. I must just say my endo was clueless about Vits and Minerals. Being just in range in your blood test results just isn't good enough and won't get you very far. I've learnt that the hard way.
You need iron to get T3 into the cells.
Since really tackling low B12 i've even lost more weight, the same has happened to my eldest daughter who is hypo and has PA.
I cant understand why your "specialist" - which I take to be your endo - has not tested all your vitamins before now. That is the first thing my endo did along with adrenal tests, heart scans and bone scans, makes me wonder if my endo is an exception to the rule. How can these "specialist" begin to understand what is wrong with you when they dont even to the basic blood tests.
As said above get your B12, VitD, iron,, ferritin and folates tested and see what that throws up. Mine showed I was very low in VitD and ferritin and since correcting these I feel so much better. I managed to get my GP to test it my B12 before I went to the endo and had corrected these myself after finding out that this was also low in range. If you do get them tested please get a copy of the results so that you can post on here for info and advice.
Just wanted to advise that many anti-depressants cause hairloss, even if it is not mentioned in the list of side effects, some brands seem worse than others for this if the forums on depression are anything to go by.
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