Do men suffer worse when it comes to Thyroid removal/treatment?

[real_mission]

Not a popular question, I know, but looking into this for the last 2 years I've found aspects of treatment seem to affect males more.

I had my RAI in June 2011 and was hanging onto the bed for 3 days, nausea for the following week and 'Bleh' for the rest of the year. I've seen lots of ladies sail through the RAI ,some even report it as a 'Placebo'

My meds have been all over the place , I have a smooth run on T3, then all hell breaks loose. Ive tried T3,T3+T4 andT4 only ,never the same on any meds, Im on NDT now which seems to be working well.

Some women I hear of just drop on T4 and are done, many men Ive found do seem to have huge problems getting the dose right and settling on a course of meds which work.

I know Dr Low was on 150 Mcg of T3 , and being male, generally we take larger doses ,even though starting dosages are the same for males and females (60 mcg)

So, is there a major difference between the sexes when it comes to thyroid treatment?

[shaws Administrator]

I'm glad you're feeling better on NDT. As you were on other thyroid gland meds previously, this is an article by Dr Lowe:

web.archive.org/web/2010073...

Are problems of recover due to the insistence that our TSH is kept 'within range' by the medical profession? Another quote from Dr Lowe:-

What does matter is that your doctor not use the "replacement" practice of adjusting your dosage by your TSH, T4, and T3 levels. If he does, you’re not likely to fully recover your health. In contrast, if he adjusts your dosage by your symptoms and especially your resting metabolic rate, you stand the best possible chance of fully recovering.

web.archive.org/web/2010103...

Re the difference between men and women, I think women are about 5 times more than men to get a thyroid gland dysfunction. Many (men or women) do not get well on levo and that's why most are searching (on this site) for information as they cannot understand that they are having hormones replaced but they feel worse.

They are told that the clinical symptoms they're still having are 'not due to thyroid' and given medications for the symptoms rather than an increase or alternative hormone that their thyroid gland desperately needs.

[Hidden]

Hi real-mission. My experience, as a women is that I was on t4 for about 29 years, at about 125-150 mcg and had medium- grade under-treated symptoms all those years, then about 4 years ago things went down hill rapidly. I could not walk half way up my drive without stopping, gained nearly 5 stone with no extra eating. I had been a rambler at that point so was quite fit but found myself breathless etc .... Had to threaten formal action against GP to get T3 (20) added in. Things improved some, but for weight loss I had to do 6 months on Cambridge diet at 420 cals per day and even had frequent days of gaining weight on that (!!). Weight then gstabilised and I even lost a further 7lbs (think it was due to falling in love lol!) . Then a year ago, once more things have gone seriously downhill despite being "in the normal range". I was identified as having had autoimmune damage to my thyroid but was signed off by Endo as being unable to help me. So I don't think, from my experience, it is necessarily less problematic for women.

[real_mission]

Thanks for the replies

I think one of the big stumbling blocks for Thyroidless males is the original dosage is the same for both sexes, putting males immediately Hypo.

When I spoke to my Oncologist, he insisted the dose was fine, I asked him if I was an octogenarian grannie ,weighing about 6 stone would the dose be the same? He then wrote a dose out ofr 20mcg more

Its been up and down all the way for me. Many guys seem to not get on with replacement at all. Ive spoken to many women who just take T4 and that's it, Im yet to find a male who just took to replacement like a duck to water.

Thanks for the links too Shaws