Hello fellow thyroid friends

[A_lice]

Hi I'm new here.

I'd love to speak to some people in this community and share some of your experiences and knowledge.

Iv recently started treatment for an underactive thyroid. Iv not yet had a confirmation on wether it's Hashimoto disease or another thyroid condition.

Iv suffered with an underactive thyroid since about age 10 but Iv not had a doctor that's taken it seriously until now. since the birth of my son this year Iv been able to get regular tests and have been given treatment for hypothyroidism.

Iv been doing research into further info about this condition and have a few questions I'm hoping someone in this community can help.

Is it true that there's a difficult to diognose underactive thyroid condition called subclinical hypothyroidism? Has anyone suffered from this and have any further information.

Can having hypothyroidism have flare ups, effect your menstrual cycle, cause ulcers and severe fatigue.

And does anyone know if certain blood groups can cause or effect having an autoimmune disease. I'm rh negative and am trying to find out information about blood groups and immune systems.

I'm sure il have loads more questions. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing from you.

[shaws Administrator]

Welcome to our forum and many women develop hypothyroidism or other thyroid gland problems after giving birth but you suspect you've had problems since the age of 10, so you've really been 'under par' for some years.

If you put a short history of your journey onto your Profile, so that it gives members an idea before they post an answer.

Hashimoto's is the commonest form of hypothyroidism and is diagnosed if person has thyroid antibodies. The antibodies attack the thyroid gland and wax and wane until the person is hypothyroid. Due to the TSH not being high enough to be diagnosed some people remain unmedicated but one ex President of the BTA states that if we have antibodies they should begin on levothyroxine despite the TSH. Many doctors don't understand that and the person remains unmedicated until the TSH reaches 10 (in UK) some doctors nat prescribe if number goes above range.

To help reduce antibody levels, going gluten[-free can help reduce attacks but treatment is the same as hypothyroidism, i.e. levothyroxine.

Blood tests should always be the very earliest, fasting (you can drink water) and if on thyroid hormone replacement allow a gap of approx 24hours between last dose and test and this gives the best tSH result as that's all doctors seem to take notice of. They can adjust dose unnecessarily if we don't follow this procedure which results in us not feeling very well.

The aim of thyroid hormone replacement is to bring TSH to 1 or lower. (not somewhere in the range as most doctors believe). Free t4 and Free T3 should also occasionally be taken (especially for first test) and on the link below you will see the reason for these to be tested. Doctors appear poorly trained.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Always get a print-out of your results with the ranges for your own records and you can post if you have a query.

We should have a blood test every six weeks to eight weeks with an increase of 25mcg levo until symptoms free - not until the TSH is somewhere in the range.

Also ask for B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate to be tested. All have to be optimal.

[A_lice in reply to shaws]

Thank you so much for your reply. I will definitely post more Info about my history. You've given me really useful info thank you

[greygoose]

'Subclinical hypo' is more an opinion than a condition, expressed by doctors who know little about thyroid. What they mean is that your TSH is under 10, regardless of the range which rarely goes up as far as six! The true meaning of 'subclinical' is that blood tests say you have the condition but you have no symptoms. GP doctors completely ignore this definition and use it as an excuse not to diagnose people!

Hypothyroidism doesn't have flare-ups, but Hashimoto's disease dose. When the gland is attacked, the dying cells dump their hormone into the blood, and hormone levels rise temporarily. Ignorant doctors have a fit, declare you've 'gone hyper' - a physical impossibility - and slash your dose. So, then you go back to being hypo, only more so, because there's less gland, and find yourself under-medicated.

Hypothyroidism does affect your female functions in various ways, and can make you exhausted. But, I don't know about the ulcers. Possibly.

No-one really knows about the blood groups and hypo. There was a poll done on it, here. I think the result showed that the majority of hypos were O+. But, the majority of people are O+! So, that doesn't prove anything. I'm A+. You can find the polls by clicking on the 'Polls' button at the top of the page.

[A_lice in reply to greygoose]

Thank you for your reply. It's really helping speaking to other people.

[greygoose in reply to A_lice]

You're welcome. Don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have.