I've been diagnosed with hypo thyroidism today. This has been a long time coming and have recently had almost nine weeks or so off work with fatigue and low mood. I'm 35 years old, overweight , now appear to have high cholesterol??? Although I do moderate exercise and eat fairly well. I feel today that a weight had been lifted as I have had low mood for the past couple of years which antidepressants never seem to totally resolve. Luckily I have a good employer.
Now I'm just getting to grips with this, my GP wants to see me next week ax he didn't want to overload me.... not really sure what a thyroid is or what any of this means, is it serious? Can it DEFINITELY be treated/cured and are there any complications I should worry about.
Anyway that's me!!!! Hello.
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Ellenovember
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I'm not hyperthyroid, I am hypo, so I can't tell you anything from personal experience.
It would be an idea for you to have a look around ThyroidUK's main website (this is ThyroidUK's forum), there is a lot of information there. Maybe start at 'About the Thyroid' in the purple menu on the left hand side and work your way down
Hi, good news that you finally managed to get a diagnosis. Its not so great being hypo, but replacement hormones can make you feel completely normal again.
When you return to the doctor next week, he should give you a prescription for levothyroxine, either 25mcg or 50. You need to take it on an empty stomach, about an hour away from food and other meds. I always found last thing at night was the best idea. After about 6 weeks you should be feeling a little better and then it will be time for another blood test and a dose increase if you need one.
Arrange blood tests as early as possible, don't take your meds on the night before a test and donT eat or drink before the test. (Water only).
Get a copy of your blood test results every time... You are looking for a tsh of less than 1 ( being just in range is not good enough) and for free t4 and free t3towards the top end of the range.
Statins are contra indicated for people on thyroid medication, as the high cholesterol is caused by the low thyroid levels and you are mire likely to get muscle damage (myalgia)
levothyroxine suits about 85% of the people who are prescribed it and we never hear from them as they have no need of a forum. The other 15% have to find their way on to the net and forums like this one and battle it out with their docs.... Hence we are a bit battle weary sometimes....
watch your ferritin and iron levels and keep your b12 in the higher end of the range.
hopefully you will do fine on levothyroxine, if not, there is plenty of help available on here.
Don't worry about your cholesterol levels, and don't agree to take statins. (Doctors can't force people to take drugs under normal circumstances. The choice is yours.) If you get your thyroid hormone levels optimised (which will take a while), your cholesterol will drop naturally. Hypothyroid people shouldn't take statins anyway.
Good advice above and I'm sure you will get there butvthis is just a reminder that things in the thyroid world move slowly, mostly because of the testing. It takes about 5 weeks to get the dose fully into your system and then it's retest time and you have to keep doing this till you are on the right dose for you. Don't try to speed it up by increasing in more than 25 mcg each time as you could endo up being hyper and that's horrible plus you would have to drop back a few steps and increase slowly again.
The site mentioned above is brilliant and we are always just a post away so shout out if anything you don't understand. Post your next lot of bloods and the ranges and then we can take it from there plus it's much easier to work out what is happening when learning about your own results. Another way of keeping track of your progress is the print out the list of symptoms. There are such a lot but you won't get many thankfully but there may be things you wouldn't think are thyroid related as well. Fill one out and date it and tick off what you have. A little latter down the line you may wish to do another and you may then be able to be aware of improvements along the way.
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