'Time of the Month'

[Mr-Sensible69]

Hi Folks, I get this rather peculiar symptom. I call it 'My time of the month' and I'm a 47yr old male who's very athletic. I have 3 days each month where I got very tired, oversleep and can be pretty much good for nothing. It usually occurs at the end of the month or beginning. Its severity also varies from month to month. Some months its hardly noticeable others it completely incapacitates me. Recently it appears to have shifted to occurring mid month. Just coming out of the absolute worst one I've ever had which started on Sunday, absolutely no energy whatsoever and muscles aching most of the day. Struggled to even walk half a mile to local café and I'm a marathon runner and former international athlete. Another quirk is the more severe it is the better my troublesome hypothyroid type symptoms will be in the month after 'My time of the month' GPs adamant nothing wrong with my thyroid and have only ever tested TSH. Toft who I saw in February didn't want to know about it either, he was more interested in talking about his fishing trip in the summer to an estate near where I live in the Scottish Islands. This all started 8 yrs after the medical profession in its wisdom decided to overdose me for a year on a drug that is known to mess up the thyroid. Can anyone shed any light on this rather peculiar 'Time of the month' thing that I get

[shaws Administrator]

Unfortunately, the guidelines of the British Thyroid Association stick to the 'TSH only diagnosis' for hypothyroidism. Dr Toft also. They dismiss clinical symptoms altogether. Whereas, before the introduction of blood tests and levo we were given a trial of Natural Dessicated Thyroid Hormones as symptoms were taken into account. The following is from a link and unfortunately the doctor is now dead - most of us believe caused by the houding by the GMC because he diagnosed/prescribed according to symptoms, as he was taught as a medical student. Excerpt:

His research has also extended to the clinical arena. Some fifteen years ago he was asked by colleagues to see patients who were considered to have myalgic encephalopathy or chronic fatigue syndrome or post viral syndrome or post viral fatigue on account of his interest in virus disease. He noted that a number of these patients had clinical features of hypothyroidism but had ‘normal’ levels of thyroid hormones which would lead most workers in the field to reject a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Dr Skinner has since treated and returned to health many patients who were clinically hypothyroid but had normal thyroid chemistry and has reported these results in a preliminary paper entitled “Clinical response to thyroxine sodium in clinically hypothyroid but biochemically euthyroid patients”. He is disappointed that many doctors have little enthusiasm or will to examine this critical shortfall in patient care which in part motivated his book “Diagnosis and Management of Hypothyroidism”.

This book was written to draw attention of the medical profession to a major faux pas in the care of patients with hypothyroidism. This arises from the inexplicable refusal of the medical profession to recognise that patients can suffer from hypothyroidism when the thyroid chemistry is deemed to be ‘normal’ if the free thyroxine or the thyroid stimulating hormone lie between 95% reference intervals. There is a further problem that when a patient is diagnosed as hypothyroid many patients receive too low level of thyroid replacement through servile reliance on thyroid chemistry with (often) cavalier disregard of how the patient feels accompanied by an implicit and bizarre belief that a level of thyroid hormone is a better index of wellbeing than the patient’s own view of his/her wellbeing.

When having a blood test for thyroid hormones, blood should be drawn as early as possible and fast although you can drink water. If you were taking thyroid hormones you'd leave about 24 hours between the last dose and the test. This keeps your TSH highest otherwise the doctor might adjust your dose (wrong).

Ask for Vitamin B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate and thyroid antibodies to be tested as well as TSH, T3, T4, Free T4 and Free T3 (probably wont do the latter two but no harm in asking).

If GP wont do them Thyroiduk.org.uk have recommended labs and you get a small discount if you mention their code.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

(I am not medically qualified but I was undiagnosed hypothyroid and due to Thyroiduk.org.uk am now well).

[Hidden]

As an athlete I am sure you are already aware of the significant loss of minerals when you sweat, i.e. magnesium, sodium, potassium, zinc etc plus all the above mentioned by Shaws. It is difficult to replenish these losses through diet, so unless you are supplementing you could be low on those as well.

Just covering all bases.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Hidden]

Also consider stress (physical as well as mental). It sounds as though your adrenal glands are not keeping up with the demands. I used to "run of steam" once a term at school, then about once a month, then every weekend, then every afternoon ... (over the course of a lot of years)