What ended up being the cause of your tiredness? - Thyroid UK

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What ended up being the cause of your tiredness?

thyroidorwhat profile image
17 Replies

And is it resolved?

If your thyroid result was normal or even if you're hypo/hyper something else could have been making it worse, so what was the eventual cause of your long-term fatigue?

Thyroid, vitamin/mineral deficiency, sleep apnoea, hormonal disorder etc?

Just curious as I'm in this predicament currently. Thyroid is normal. Sleep apnoea is being looked into and trialling B12 injections and folate supplements at home as they're below optimal levels but apart from that most other things seem normal.

Although I do have my first MRI coming up to rule out pituitary problems due to lower cortisol and raised estrogen levels but nothing serious flagged.

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17 Replies
shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

"Normal "with regard to blood tests is meaningless due to the fact that doctors cannot interpret results properly.

If you've had a recent blood test, which should have been at the very earliest, fasting (and allowed 24 hours gap between last dose of levo and the test, get a print-out from the surgery and make sure the ranges are stated and post them. If you don't have them today, put them on a fresh post.

Normal to doctors just means the blood test results are within the 'normal' range but if we're taking thyroid hormone replacements we need TSH to be 1 or lower. More important we need both Free T3 and Free T4 to be towards the upper part of the range but they are mainly in the lower part.

I am sure you will have more than tiredness as a symptoms and I'll give you a list:-

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

thyroidorwhat profile image
thyroidorwhat in reply to shaws

Yeah of course :) I don't have a thyroid problem according to my full thyroid panel. My TSH went from 0.9 to 2.9 once which made me think it's finally showing something, but I think it was a blip as test after test it's back to 0.9.

I understand normal and optimal are completely different things too and I have really been cluing myself up on that thanks to this site.

The only things that have ever flagged are low Vitamin D (resolved), low B12 and folate (working on them), low cortisol (SST normal so endo discharged me), possible sleep apnoea and possible pituitary issues being looked into.

Fingers crossed I find something because this is... exhausting.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to thyroidorwhat

TSH on its own tells you nothing much. You need your FT4, FT3 and antibodies tested. :)

thyroidorwhat profile image
thyroidorwhat in reply to greygoose

Yeah I had a full panel done via Medichecks which was all fine :) I posted the results here when I got them back.

I was disappointed to say the least, meant I had to keep looking haha.

greygoose profile image
greygoose in reply to thyroidorwhat

Yes, I can understand that. :(

Justiina profile image
Justiina

For me the life changing thing was B12+B1+B6 injections. It looks like I actually have some sort of mitochondrial disease which will be tested soon. I am also possibly getting T3 as it's another important factor in mitochondria with B1 and B6.

Injections relieve the lactic acid build up which manifests in tired tight achy muscles. Injections improved my sleep so I wake up feeling rested, no constant yawning, appetite is better, digestion better , i tolerate heat, body temperature better. All in all for me this is awesome.

thyroidorwhat profile image
thyroidorwhat in reply to Justiina

Wow, never heard of anything other than B12 being injected. Great that you found something that helps you to feel better!

Justiina profile image
Justiina in reply to thyroidorwhat

Well normally this cocktail is given to alcoholics 😁 I don't drink at all.

Panda_26 profile image
Panda_26 in reply to Justiina

Could I ask where you get the B injections ?

I've only ever heard of B12 !

Thanks,

Amanda.

Justiina profile image
Justiina in reply to Panda_26

I am in Finland and my smart doc had read international studies of fatigue. B1 is needed to convert carbs to energy and B6 helps to get rid of lactate build up. I had few blood tests indicating I have mild mitochondria issues which is a sign of lack of B1 and B6.

dogtired profile image
dogtired

At last a dx! The reason for the many weird symptoms and fatigue over the years is down to chronic Lymes. Beware tick-borne infections!!

thyroidorwhat profile image
thyroidorwhat in reply to dogtired

Hopefully now you can start to feel better?!

HaloHealth profile image
HaloHealth

I’m in exactly the same position. Pretty normal labs through medichecks, mostly low folate, Vit D and ferritin. I’ve just got supplements to help with this but. My T3 and T4 are slightly low but doesn’t explain why I feel so crap. I don’t think I absorb nutrients very well due to gut issues. And someone said low ferritin can affect your T3, or something like that. So does this mean I should take some NTD or T3? Who knows, I can’t get a straight answer out of anyone. I just want to stop feeling so tired all the time for starters. Trying to figure it all out is exhausting

Teuchter profile image
Teuchter

Hi. I looked at your profile and (unless I missed it?) it doesn't say if you are male or female, and what age you are?

I'm guessing from your hormone test results that you are male?

If so, your testosterone results look reasonable for a 40 to 70 year old man: however if you are 18-30, they're not great.

Hi oestradiol in men can be caused (among other things) by a prolactinoma (your pituitary MRI should show this) or Klinefelter Syndrome - but both are fairly rare. Many years ago, I few months after I started thyroxine tablets for underactive thyroid, I had a test which showed oestradiol above the normal range - but with no obvious cause, so no treatment was offered.

In men, testosterone is converted to oestrogen by the enzyme aromatase; some men (especially in their 40s and 50s) seem to convert more of their testosterone to oestrogen than others.

Some drugs used to treat women with breast cancer (tamoxifen, letrozole, anastrazole) may also reduce oestrogen in men.

I have heard of Danazol (prescribed for women suffering from endometriosis) being used to treat middle-aged men who have low free testosterone.

These are prescription drugs (in the UK) which doctors will almost certainly not prescribe for men.

Personally, I have found that supplementing with tribulus terristris (which helps your body produce testosterone) and DIM (Diindolyl-Methane), together with taking enough thyroxine to keep my TSH almost undetectable, keeps me functioning at a manageable level of tiredness.

Good luck,

Geoff.

thyroidorwhat profile image
thyroidorwhat in reply to Teuchter

Hello,

Thanks for your reply. I'm male and 24 so I guess my testosterone is quite poor? I do have disappointing facial hair too if that's relevant.

I'm having my oestradiol repeated tomorrow via my GP as she said it might just be a blip and if not she will go from there, and also having the brain MRI soon. Then I plan to self-inject B12, just to see, as even with high dose supplements it's not increasing significantly like I see from others' results.

Fingers crossed something is found so I can stop feeling crap.

Thanks again!

thyroidorwhat profile image
thyroidorwhat in reply to Teuchter

Oh my gosh. I've just had a look at the kil... Syndrome you listed. While it's rare, I do have dyspraxia and I'm the tallest in my family. I was 'assessed' for growth abnormalities (not properly, no MRI or actual tests, just observations) as I shot up to 6'4 at the age of 12. This fits me like no other condition has. The depression, weakness, growth, dyspraxia, high oestradiol etc.

I'm going to have to look into it.

Thanks again!

Aurealis profile image
Aurealis

I was tired for many years before eventually being diagnosed with hypothyroidism. In the intervening years iron tablets sometimes helped but I only got well when treated for the hypothyroidism. I took no other supplements.

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