Hi! My name is Luna, I am in my late 30s and about a year ago I was put on a small amount of nature thyroid to help come off psych meds, specifically Wellbutrin. It was the second time I tried to come off the Wellbutrin in 3 years and my doctor noticed my tsh was higher than it should be, around 3.75-4.95. I considered stopping Wellbutrin, so that I'm the future I could have a medication free pregnancy, but was completely happy on the Wellbutrin! I didn't know any other way.
When I was a teen I did poorly in school and was put on Dexedrine which is an amphetamine used for ADHD. From the age of 14-36 I was medicated on at least one of these psychoactive medications. I was getting colds and strep throat quite a bit and my digestion wasn't the best with bouts of reflux and constipation/ibs.
Finally, when I tried the nature thyroid starter dose it became easier to stop taking the medication. It was crazy! I was tapering in off the Wellbutrin with compounded medication in small doses and it was still so hard. Since then I have tapered completely off Wellbutrin and take two a split dose of Nature thyroid--currently 113.75 in the AM and 81.25 in the PM about 8 hours later. I get my levels checked every 3-4 weeks by a doctor in New York City who specializes in subclinical hypothyroidism. I find myself feeling better, but it was quite a long road to get here. I was extremely fatigued and depressed during the three year period where I was stopping the psych meds and on nothing and I gained about 12 lbs. I feel the weight slowly and healthfully coming off with daily exercise, but its so hard and I can not fit into my old pants which I still find discouraging. I am hoping that soon I'll hit the sweet spot and be at the right nature thyroid dose for long term. When I need an increase I tend to fall into a depression and feel hopeless. I begin to want to go back to my old way and taper off thyroid meds and go back on Wellbutrin! It's a really sensitive balance but I am working closely with my doctor to feel good and be on enough natural thyroid medication.
I hit a wall with the functional medicine doctor as they were uncomfortable with a suppressed tsh and the doctor for subclinical hypothyroid who also specializes in fertility is ok with a suppressed tsh. The TSH gets suppressed to a very low number well below the acceptable range. The thyroid doctor reads many other lab values and treats the patient. The functional doctor is amazing but for my specific thyroid situation I believe I just need medication to feel good. Functional medicine can definitely help a newly diagnosed hypothyroid person because the issue could lie in nutritional deficiencies, so get your levels checked! The adreanals also play a part. I'm finally doing the saliva adreanal test by art labs this month so will report back!
There are a lot of great resources that I found helpful. The blog hypothyroidmom.com and stopthethyroidmadness.com have been helpful as well as Mark Starr's book Hypothyroid type 2, and the thyroid chapter in Healing is Voltage by Gary Tennant. The Broda Barnes book was also a good read.
One major point that these websites and books have taught is to take your basal body temperature, the rising temperature on day 1-19 of your cycle if you are female. If you are male just take your temp upon rising. Use a glass shakedown thermometer. I have a germatherm non mercury basal thermoter. My doctor subtracts 8/10 of a degree after ovulation and you should be in the range of 97.8-98.2 immediately upon waking without getting out of bed or moving around. Don't get up to go to the bathroom first!
if you are below the range your levels are off and it's an indication you will need to increase your meds. The last week of the female cycle is hardest to gauge since your temp naturally rises before your menses.
I will try to add more as I continue through my healing process. Hope this helps others like me! With love from NYC. -Luna
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