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Joints pain, stiffness and pain in fingers and toes mostly during night

Anca-Mihaela profile image
3 Replies

Hi, I am new here but eager to find the cause of my symptoms which are making my life undesirable since I got into menopause period.

Since 2012 when it first started I had first rashes and bad sleeping issues, fatigue, later joints pain. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto disease in Romania, my home country. Even under treatment with Eutryrox my test never changed ( TPO =744.19 UI/ml ref. <5.61UI/ml; Anti-Tiroglobulina CMIA method = 63.68 UI/ml ref <4.11 UI/ml) Endocrinologist in Romania recommended not to take any treatment and be under survey.)

I am now 57 , working in UK and have lots of pain in all my joints mostly during night. Also pin and needles, stiffness in fingers and toes, etc. My GP says my regular blood tests are OK and is not refferring me to any specialist.

I spend my summer in Romania where I did only some specific tests due to costs:

Results are as follows:

rheumatoid factor UI/ml < 20, ref. <30

TSH is 3.1455 mUI, ref. 0.35-4.94

T3 is 0.95 ng/ml, ref. 0.58-1.59

T4 is 6.47 mg/dl, ref. 4.87-11.72

The only odd being:

TPO which is higher than before : >1000 UI/ml when ref is <5.61

What am I to do? Nobody seems to know and more over to refer me to a specialist like endocrinologist.

Thanks for any help you can share.

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Anca-Mihaela
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marsaday profile image
marsaday

The hashi's is becoming a lot more active. You need to look at a low gluten diet to help control the inflammation. Google hashimotoes and diets. Lots of info to help improve this area.

Your blood say you are under medicated. What dose to you take and is it basic T4 ?

You may want to look into using a little T3, or increasing the T4 as this is low.

startagaingirl profile image
startagaingirl

Hi and welcome to the forum. As Marsaday has already said, you are under-medicated. The aim for patients treated with t4 should be to have Tsh around or below 1, with ft4 in the top quarter of range or higher if that is required to have ft3 in top third of range. So what you need is an increase of 25 mcg now with a re-test every 6-8 weeks, adjusting dose as required each time by a maximum of 25 mcg.

As you have the hashimotos auto-immune form (as do 90% of us hypos), it is usually recommended that you try at least a 3 month trial of a strict gluten free diet to see if that makes a difference. Hashis means that your immune system is mistakenly attacking your thyroid, killing off the cells, so what remains can no longer produce enough hormones for good health. This is often linked to poor gut health, often triggered by food intolerances (leaky gut), the worst of these typically being gluten, dairy and soy.

Hashis is almost universally accompanied by serious nutritional deficiencies caused by the gut problems and low stomach acid. Have you had vit d, vit b12, folate and ferritin tested? It is important that these are all at fairly high levels for effective use of any thyroid hormones, not just in range. These will also cause problems on their own, for instance your aches and pains could be caused by low vit d (or its co-factor magnesium), and low b12 can cause pins and needles and other nerve issues.

There is cost-effective private testing available in uk through Blue Horizons or Medichecks ( watch these for special offers on Thursdays). Many of us use their home finger-prick tests.

There is a lot to learn about managing thyroid condition, and don't expect doctors to have a good grasp of it unfortunately. A good place to start to learn is our parent website thyroiduk.org. Also read posts here as we have many expert patients who are always willing to help, they have certainly really helped me!

If you need help pushing your GP to increase dose, then search in box for references to a "pulse Anthony toft" . That should bring up about an article written for GPs. There are also many reference links in forum for more info on the gut/Hashis connection and how to address it.

Come back with whatever results you manage to get and we can give more specific advice.

Gillian

Anca-Mihaela profile image
Anca-Mihaela in reply to startagaingirl

Thanks to both of you, you are most kind to help.

Actually I am not treated in any way by doctors but take through my own judgment magnesium as I am lacking it since childhood, also started vit D3 ( 1000 UI) and Mydocalm a muscle relaxing pill which helps reducing pain.

I will see my GP this week and try to persuade her to refer me to an endocrinologist and/or have more specific blood test. I am trying since 2014 to convince her about my thyroid problems and she thinks it is balanced!

Regards,

Anca

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