I was diagnosed last year with hypothyroidism. My Gp said I was borderline but as I was feeling exhausted prescribed me 25mg levy. I had blood tested a month later and he said everything was ok and so the dosage remained the same. However I began to feel exhausted again a few months later and so my bloods were tested. When they came back he increased meds to 50mg and said repeat bloods again in a month. He increased it to 75 and then told me to have a blood test again in 2 months. I had them took today and are waiting for the results, which I do feel I need a further increase as I an still having bouts of exhaustion.
My main symptoms throughout are tiredness, constipation, heavy periods, itchy skin, low mood, sometimes I get angry as I struggle with being tired. When I increase I do feel the benefit and become less tired. My symptoms become worse around when I am due on my period and I suffer with PMT. I also put quite a lot of weight on.
I got my results from my last test
Free T4 12.2
TSH 6.10. Which is apparently raised.
I haven't had much info from the doctor. Over 10 yrs ago I suffered eclampsia and my baby died. I felt exhausted throughout the pregnancy and felt awful. It does make me wonder if I have had thyroid problems for a long time.
I feel I would like to be referred to a specialist. But I am worried my doctor will say we are treating my symptoms and I just need to increase my meds until I become stable!
Can anyone advise me about speaking to my GP
Thanks
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chrisk71
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Have you ever been tested for APS or Hughes syndrome? It's an auto immune disease very hard to diagnose My sister has it and I just recently tested for it. So sorry about your baby. Unfortunately that is one of the symptoms of APS. THERE IS AN APS FORUM ON HEALTH UNLOCKED. Maybe you should in investigate it. Thyroid problems blood clots sojerns syndrome are all connected to this disease.any women successfully treated have gone on to have healthy children. Just like thyroid UK APS UK HAS MUCH INFORMATION ON IT. I HOPE IT HELPS YOU. GOOD LUCK.
Hi Chris, your TSH should record at about 1.0 when you are being treated for hypothyroidism. So 6.10 is VERY far above range. You have to increase your dose every few weeks until you reach the level that keeps you at about 1.0. I'm sure your T4 range goes up to 20, doesn't it? That is also too low.
There are cofactors that go along with working with your thyroid hormone and two important ones, iron and ferritin must be high enough to allow your T4 to convert to the active free T3. Since you say you have been suffering for a very long time you probably have become deficient in other nutrients such as folate, B12, vitamin D and possibly selenium which is an important mineral. Often this happens because the digestive system is sluggish and you may have low stomach which is necessary to extract nutrients. I hope you haven't been taking antacids.
If you would like to view an excellent video about the workings of your thyroid and closely related adrenal glands it offers good information for you to get a foundation about your condition.
I'm afraid GPs and even Endocrinologists do not keep pace with research. Functional trained who are often chiropractors and nutritionists seem to know more. This one also shows that there are many different reasons for becoming hypothyroid. Usually it is an autoimmune condition, Hashimoto's, but often the cortisol due to stress initiates the problem. This is a short one but explains one big problem of low thyroid.
clearly you are hypo and not responding to treatment so far, I think you should ask yr gp if he would test yr antibodies. He should really have done this already.mThat would be one step forward, u would know then u had an auto immune disease and could begin to rule out others.
v v v sorry about your baby.
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ps In my last pregnancy i felt so tired all the way thru I felt I was dying, and also felt sick and hungry at the same time all the way thru. I al
so think this prob meant thyroid probs were present then.
You may have seen clutter's post on research giving the astounding figure of one pregnant woman on six suffering this.
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