Mouth ulcers and Vaginal thrush

[Mols_Bols1]

Hi All,

I'm fairly new to this site so I'll just give you a quick bit about my back ground.. bare with me.

I had a full thyroidectomy at 26yrs old (I'm now 40) due to Graves disease. Ever since then I've never felt great, in the early days even suicidal with the constant brain fog so severe I didn't even dare cross roads incase the light wasn't really green. I haven't seen an endocrinologist since.

Now I suffer with terrible joint pain in my legs and back, exhaustion, terrible dry skin, paper thin nails and hair, weight gain, short tempered and moody and something which I haven't seen anyone else mention..mouth ulcers and vaginal thrush, both come and go regularly. Is this common or not related to being Hypothyriod?

I've just ordered T3 and hoping that will help with these symptoms. I"m currently taking 150mg Levothyroxine, my GP thinks i'm taking 125mg. I upped my dose a month or so ago to see if it helped, but its not changed anything.

I had a blood test a week after I upped the dose and my T4 came back as 0.03 so my doctor wants to reduce the levo.. I haven't yet. I can't recall my TSH result but remember it was ' in range'.

I haven't had T3 bloods or any others yet.. suggestions on what to ask for would be great.

[Greenwall]

Could you give your lab results with the ranges please, as each lab has different range.

[Mols_Bols1 in reply to Greenwall]

Ah ok, I'll call the GP tomorrow. What exactly would I need to ask for.. blood results with ranges?

[Greenwall in reply to Mols_Bols1]

Just ask for a print out, and all the info will be on it.

[humanbean]

I have major trouble with mouth ulcers. I had them very badly as a child, then took up smoking in my teens and the ulcers went away. Then I stopped smoking in my late 40s and the ulcers came back immediately, just like the intervening decades had never happened.

I have never managed to eliminate them, or even reduce the numbers, but I have managed to reduce the pain, life span, and size of them.

Being low in iron and ferritin is a big no-no for anyone with mouth ulcers. Ask your GP for thorough iron testing - ferritin, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation. It would also help if you had a Full Blood Count as well.

I would also suggest that other nutrient deficiencies were a factor in making my ulcers so bad. I now supplement, and my iron, vitamin B12, folate and vitamin D are all optimal. I make sure I keep my levels as close to optimal as possible.

One thing to be aware of - supplementing high dose vitamin B12 (specifically methylcobalamin) made my ulcers much worse for a while, but after a couple of months or so the ulcers became much less severe than they had been before B12 supplementation, so I think it was worth it in the long run.

I don't know if you are aware of something called Behçet's syndrome (BS). I don't know if it fits your symptoms - certainly the mouth ulcers are very relevant. There is a forum on Health Unlocked for people with BS. It would be worth doing some research.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beh%C...

Good luck. Don't forget the nutritional testing. Once you have your levels and the reference ranges write them into a new post and ask for advice to see if you need to supplement. You alsmost certainly will need to - you'd be a rarity if you don't.

[Mols_Bols1]

Thanks Humanbean, my younger sister struggled with mouth ulcers when she was younger just like you, some so big they distorted her face from the swellings. She was told she had BS in her adult years, but since has magically not had any symptoms.

Thanks for the great advice, I have an appointment to see the GP in a week so will ask for those bloods along with the full thyroid ones (hoping she'll agree to do all)

[fibrolinda]

Had mouth ulcers all the time for years, several at once, but had none since on Ndt , same for thrush 😊 mind you my iron and b12 were very low

[Mols_Bols1]

Thanks Linda, I'm thinking B12 might be the cause a's so many other symptoms I have.

Did you manage to convince the GP to prescribe you NDT?

I'm seeing my GP at the end of June and am determined to go in all guns blazing asking for the blood tests I need and to have a trial on NDT so any advice on how you convinced your GP to listen would be great.

[humanbean in reply to Mols_Bols1]

If you press the green Reply box of the specific post you are responding to the author of that post will get a notification that they have had a reply.

Otherwise, nobody knows they have been replied to unless they remember to go and look.

[Mols_Bols1 in reply to humanbean]

Doh.. sorry.

[humanbean in reply to Mols_Bols1]

I got notified!

[Greenwall in reply to Mols_Bols1]

Don't worry - we're all learning.