Hi was diagnosed with under active thyroid in jan this year on 75mg levothyroxine I'm 52 but my legs keep really aching Is this normal in also on ramipril 10mg and atorvastatin 10mg for blood pressure and cholesterol which are both under control thanks
Aching legs: Hi was diagnosed with under active... - Thyroid UK
Aching legs
Hello Tina-r,
Welcome to our forum and sorry to hear that you have achey legs.
An under medicated thyroid condition can have many side effects including muscle pain or weakness but also high cholesterol and BP.
Unfortunately doctors keep our thyroid hormone blood tests within range but often many if us function better with a slightly lower TSH level.
If you can post recent thyroid hormone test results complete with the ranges (numbers in brackets), members will comment. Post in a new question.
Flower007
Thanks im not due to have bloods again until December but have made an appointment with doc for next week about my legs so will ask for a print out of last blood tests and post them on here if I get them thanks again
Make a new appointment for a blood test. You have symptoms so bloods should be looked at. Some GPs think that if our TSH is 'in range' that we are also fine. That's not true. You have pains in your legs and some doctors treat every symptom as nothing to do with the thyroid gland and as Flower007 rightly points out your cholesterly and BP could well be due to your thyroid gland dysfunctioning.
Have the blood test as early as possible, fast and leave approx 24 hours between levo and blood test and take levo afterwards.
If we are underdosed/undiagnosed we can have other more serious problems arising. We also have to read and learn if we want to recover our health. Due to the fact that there's about 30,000 on this forum that's sufficient to know that levothyroxine alone doesn't make people well if they don't have sufficient or an alternative.
If GP hasn't tested Vitamin B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate and we can be deficient and also a deficiency of these can cause symptoms too.
What sort of ache are you feeling Tina? Does it feel muscular and get worse upon exercise, or is it venous or does it feel as though it's coming from your bones? How long have you been suffering from this symptom?
Tina, aching legs can be a hypothyroid symptom, particularly if undermedicated. Muscle aches are a common side effect of statins which is one reason they are contraindicated for hypothyroid patients. Cholesterol may be high in hypothyroid patients until optimally medicated with thyroid replacement when cholesterol often drops. Discuss with your GP whether you can come off statins for a while to see whether the muscle aches resolve.
Will do thanks
I'd definitely agree with asking to come off statins. I've lost count of the number of people I know personally who've been put on them and though their cholesterol was lowered, they looked older after several months and complained of having all sorts of health problems that they were not complaining of before being prescribed statins, and the majority of them were prescribed them as a result of a random cholesterol test, not because they'd been complaining of anything specific or serious.