Hello everyone, it's great to join this community

I was diagnosed with under-active thyroid 6 months ago. I had zero symptoms but my doctor prescribed the T4 thyroxine. After about 1 month I felt awful so came off it against my patronising doctors advice. I'm now taking a non-drug supplement & feel fine again! I am male, it seems this is primarily a female condition!

[shaws Administrator]

Unfortunately for us females, yes it is mainly females who suffer from dysfunctions of the thyroid gland. We also have men on our forum.

Welcome to our forum and if you get a print-out of your blood test results with the ranges members will be happy to respond. Put them on a new post.

Many of us feel awful on levothyroxine and would like to stop it but it may lead to other problems. Thyroid hormones drive our whole metabolism from head to toe and brain and heart in particular have the most need for thyroid hormones.

It is unusual for doctors to prescribe unnecessarily but sometimes they adjust our medications unnecessarily which doesn't make us feel too good.

You should have your thyroid antibodies checked if GP didn't do them and also ask for Vitamin b12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate tested. If all are at an optimum that's good.

[greygoose]

There are more and more men on here!

You do know that Thyroxine isn't a drug, don't you. It's the thyroid hormone called T4. You may think you had zero symptoms, but I'm willing to bet that's not true! Have a look on the list of symptoms on Thyroid UK's main page. There are probably things you didn't connect to thyroid.

[Clutter]

Welcome to the forum, Raywaites.

Hypothyroidism does seem to affect 9 x more women than men but after age 60-65 it is roughly 50:50.

How was hypothyroidism detected if you were asymptomatic?

[Marz in reply to Clutter]

Clutter I didn't realise that it was 50/50 later on - certainly confirms my thoughts and observations - see below Any references for that ? - don't need the proof - just interested !

[Clutter in reply to Marz]

Marz,

Sorry no reference so don't take it as written in stone.

[Hidden in reply to Clutter]

Hi Clutter, I had a routine blood test with my previous surgery & nothing was detected, about 2 months later I changed surgery to be nearer home so had a full medical including another blood test which they said showed an under-active thyroid. I said I felt fine so she stated all the main symptoms of which I had none, apart from a slight weight gain which I put down to getting older! I puzzles me how there was such a difference in blood test in just the space of 2 months. I wasn't shown the results! I won't take Levothyroxine again because it made feel so bad! I now take a supplement which contains Iodine & Selenium & feel OK.

[Marz]

Do you have the results with ranges from the time you were diagnosed ?

Yes more women than men are treated for Thyroid issues - but does that mean it is a female condition ? Women on the whole are more aware of their bodily changes and attend the Docs more often. From what I observe there are loads of men suffering with thyroid issues that are not being diagnosed or treated. They are more likely to be taking statins - blood pressure tablets -prostate meds - without the root cause being established.

My hubby has Hashimotos - as I do. It was me that added the Thyroid tests to the PSA one - not the GP. His only symptom was a reduction in energy when climbing hills. His FT4 & FT3 were oh so low .....

So the answer would be that more men should be correctly tested when they attend the GP .... and then the balance could well change.

[Hidden in reply to Marz]

Hi Marz,

I wasn't shown the actual results of the blood test, how accurate are blood tests anyway? I went back to my surgery for an ear wax problem & saw a male doctor this time. He asked me why I discontinued the Levothyroxine, he then try to persuade me to try it again but he came across like a high pressure salesman than a doctor, as though it was going to benefit him more than me! I told him that I was in charge of my own body so refused, as I was leaving I asked him how much were the drug company paying him to peddle this rubbish but surprise surprise no reply!!

[Marz in reply to Hidden]

The funding points are way down the list compared with other pills and potions ....

Treating the thyroid with replacement hormones prevents many other conditions. Did you see my recent Post about Cardiac events and T3 ?

When the correct testing is done it can be a helpful guide.

[Eddie83 in reply to Hidden]

You should always request copies of lab results. Chances are the doc did only a TSH test. Proper diagnosis requires the full test suite TSH/FT3/FT4/rT3/TPOAb/TGBAb. Hashimoto's is the leading cause of hypothyroid, thus the antibody tests.

[Eddie83]

I am male and thyroid replacement (and lots of other things) did wonders for me! Do you have any test results, esp. thyroid antibodies? And when you say you feel well off thyroid ... are you just OK, or do you feel vibrantly well? T4-only therapy does not work well for many people.