new member

[soniamac]

hi am soniamac and am a new member of thyroid uk. i am at my witts end as i had a thyroidectomy 21yrs next month. until last year i was led to believe i had a whole thyroidecomy which after a scan last year showed that i hadnt and that something has stimulated my throid and it is regrowing. i have had no follow up or anything and i have worries that i have had mental health issues ova a number of years and am wondering if this is the cause of them or wether it can develop into an over active thyroid again. there are a whole lot more to my thyroid story (bad!!! medical, surgical,aftercare,loss of medical file mis diagnosis ) to which is too long of a story to go into but my concerns are very genuine and i feel my mental health is raising its ugly head once again an i need to have some type of closer to this bad 21 yr old experience so i can determine wether it is my actual mental stability or whether it is due to my throid any advice on how i go about this would be gratefully recieved all i keep getting from my gp is well we have nothing on file and test my thyroid levels and they dont even get onto the fact i have for a number of yrs refused to take my thyroixine as it was 200mg daily and that i have not gone for a prescription for them i jus get fobbed of wen it comes to me asking all the questions i need answers too

[Nanaedake]

Hello Somniac and welcome to the forum. Why did you have a thyroidectomy?

Have you got recent thyroid blood tests that you could posts here? If in the UK you can get copies by asking for a print out from your surgery reception or you can register online for access to blood test results. You arrange this through your GP surgery. You are legally entitled to a copy of your results. Make sure they include the laboratory ranges along with the results. We need the ranges to interpret results.

If you post your results here when you get them then people will make helpful suggestions. If you have not been taking your thyroid medication then your body may try to stimulate your thyroid to increase in volume. However, you will only know whether you need thyroid medication and how much if you get a copy of your results. If you do not have enough thyroid hormone in your body it can give you all kinds of symptoms which may include depression or a distorted view of daily life.

I'm sorry you've suffered for 21 years with this disease. It's important that you don't lose the next 21 years of your life to this disease so get a hold of all existing blood test results and post them here so we can help. If you've had vitamin levels tested then post them here too.

If you have not had a recent thyroid blood test or vitamins B12, folate, ferritin and Vitamin D tested then make an urgent appointment with your GP and ask them to test everything. Ask GP to test thyroid antibodies too. Vitamin levels are often low in people with thyroid conditions.

When you've got your thyroid blood test results and posted them here, people will advise on whether you are on the correct dose of levothyroxine and whether your doctor needs to start you on vitamin supplements.

[greygoose]

It's the TSH that stimulates the thyroid. If you haven't been taking your thyroxine for a number of years, then your TSH is going to be pretty high, which will have stimulated any remaining thyroid tissue - and it's difficult to get it all out - in order to make the hormone you need to live.

Why have you refused to take it? Did no-one explain to you that it is essential for life? For one thing, it's essential for a healthy brain, so if your levels of thyroid hormone are low, it's not surprising that you are having 'mental health issues' - although they should be more correctly called 'hormonal issues'. Depression, anxiety, paranoia, lack of concentration, bipolar... all these are symptoms of low levels of thyroid hormone - even bad spelling can be a symptom! Your brain needs thyroid hormone. So, you're doing yourself a great disservice by not taking it.

We all know that doctors are rubbish when it comes to thyroid, they don't understand it and are not even interested. But it's your health and welfare that is important, so you have to look after yourself. Did you feel bad on thyroxine? Did you have multiple side-effects? It could be that thyroxine just wasn't right for you - there are other options. But, we can't tell if we don't see your lab results - it could even be that doctors weren't doing the right tests! So, you do need to get hold of the results, and get to the bottom of all this.