Do I have thyroid problems?

[Strimp]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and reading through some of the posts here I have found new hope of one day maybe feeling better. So many of you are incredibly knowledgeable on the subject and kind enough to share your knowledge with fellow sufferers. Thank you!

As a single mother of a 16 months old who is still breastfeeding, I initially thought that the symptoms I have been experiencing in the last 6 months were due to over-tiredness and what is commonly known as 'baby brain', an absentmindedness due to a combination of baby-related factors, but when I started feeling faint to the point of nearly passing out while out shopping for groceries with baby I realised that something more must be wrong, and I became really worried. My GP did some blood tests, but it took so long for them to come back back that I ended up having some done with Medicheck. Below are the results.

ENDOCRINOLOGY

Thyroid Function

THYROID STIMULATING HORMONE 2.66 mIU/L 0.27 - 4.20

FREE THYROXINE 12 pmol/L 12.00 - 22.00

TOTAL THYROXINE(T4) 67.0 nmol/L 59.00 - 154.00

FREE T3 *3.06 pmol/L 3.10 - 6.80

THYROGLOBULIN ANTIBODY <10 IU/mL 0.00 - 115.00

THYROID PEROXIDASE ANTIBODIES 16.8 IU/mL 0.00 - 34.00

I have no idea what they mean.

Apparently I also have low vitamin D levels (16), for which I have been on a once weekly dose of Plenachol 20.000 iU for about 6 weeks now, but the rest of the blood test results are normal, although I have not seen the actual results.

The GP I saw at my surgery to discuss my symptoms and tests results (a trainee, it's virtually impossible to see my GP as she's always fully booked for the month) told me that my thyroid results are normal, despite free T3 being slightly low, and not a cause for concern, although he did add that if I thought it could help he could prescribe some T3, but that once I started on it I wouldn't be able to function without, which frankly put me off. Besides, I don't know what would help! Would T3 hormones help?

I am having a real lot of trouble retaining and making sense of information which in the past would have been easy for me to do, I keep forgetting my phone in shops, I keep checking that I have everything with me because my memory and presence of mind are so bad that I don't actually know where my keys, wallet and phone are, even if I have used them 2 minutes before. Making a simple online purchase takes me between 2 and 6 hours, I loose important papers, can't organise anything and I'm living pretty much on a wing and a prayer. It's so unlike me to be this bad with researching my condition but I simply don't have the brain power to do it...in fact, apologies for this rambling post, it has taken me weeks to actually get down to writing it and I hope it makes sense.

Other symptoms I am experiencing are incredible tiredness, worse on some days, sudden bouts of dizziness where I think I'm going to pass out, the kind you experience when you haven't eaten anything all day (but I do eat, too much in fact), weight gain and great difficulty losing weight, very painful joints and bones, moving hurts, getting out of bed feels like I'm walking on painful stumps and I just wobble along, and opening jars or breaking off a piece bread is too painful to do, (which I thought were due to the rilastine hormone released in pregnancy and breastfeeding, but I'm now not so sure) as I get shooting pains in my thumbs. Perhaps the first symptom I noticed after childbirth was extremely brittle toenails and dry skin, to which now I can also add dry and brittle hair that stands on end.

I have been getting on with things because with a baby you just have to, but I am worried about my health and I really don't know what to do. Information on the web can be confusing and GPs are strangely unwilling to get to the bottom of this, but I am worried that I might pass out when I'm home alone with my daughter.

Are there any tips on what my next step should be, from anyone who has seen this set of blood test results and symptoms combination before, please? Is it possible to stimulate the thyroid (or whichever other gland involved) to produce freeT3 (is that a hornone?) naturally, without becoming dependent on synthetic hormone replacements? Pardon the naivety but would eating more iodine be a good idea?

I wonder if my previous bouts of depression through the years were also hormone related, and undiagnosed.

Thank you for reading this, I hope it makes sense!

[greygoose]

Oh my goodness! What a clodhopper!!! No idea what he's talking about. The chances of you getting T3 prescribed - I take it you're in the UK? - are as high as of me running a marathon. lol And this stupid idea that 'once you start taking it you can't stop!' Like a bunch of old... gossip mongers! Of course you can. But why would you want to? You can't live without thyroid hormones, and yours are very low - both of them. Your FT4 is also much too low. So, taking levo to start with would be the obvious thing to do. Bring them both up.

It's your very low T3 that is causing your symptoms. T4 is a storage hormone that converts to T3. If you only take T3, you don't have much in reserve, but if you take levo (T4) you always have some back-up.

The surprising thing is that your TSH is also so low - high enough to say your thyroid is struggling but not high enough given the level of your Frees. So, I would think you ought to be considering Central hypo.

Central hypo is when the problem is with the pituitary (Secondary hypo) or the hypothalamus (Tertiary hypo) rather than with the thyroid itself (Primary hypo). The result is that not enough TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) is made to stimulate the thyroid to make more hormone. So, levels drop further and further and you become very hypo.

And, the solution is not as simple as just taking T4 or T3, because the pituitary makes a lot of hormones, not just TSH (the hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary) and those other hormones are also likely to be low, causing problems elsewhere. So, they need to be tested, too.

I realise this is a lot of information in one go, for someone who isn't used to talking about these things. But, if anything isn't clear, please do ask questions. Here are a couple of links to articles about Central hypo :

endocrinologyadvisor.com/en...

pituitary.org.uk/informatio...