I'm thinking that there may be something up with my Thyroid, would welcome opinions and advice

[lookingforanswers1]

Hello,

New to this forum and new to all of this. I'm going to share background information, the history of my ill health, then my current hypotheses and plan of action. I will keep it as succinct as I can.

Reading posts on here it seems people have been through similar symptoms / experiences and have accumulated a lot of tacit community knowledge; i'm very keen for your thoughts.

Background information

I'm 31, female and have previously experienced good health with a lot of energy and a pretty good diet. I don't drink much (did binge drink at weekend in early to mid twenties, not now) and have never smoked or abused narcotics.

3-4 years ago I went through a period of high stress where I completed a doctorate degree and was in a toxic relationship (now over). I then was in a high stress job which I have recently left to be in my dream job (currently low stress). I am married and in a healthy and stable relationship. No children - yet. I have a good support network in my family and friends and mostly they have listened and supported my experience of the symptoms. I earn a decent salary which allows me to be self sufficient in addition to my marriage. Me and my husband have no external life stressors, like money problems.

I live in an urban conurbation and the pollution is probably quite high. I commute for an hour each way to my job by car.

History of my ill health

For the past two years or so I have experienced fatigue (sometimes debilitating), muscle aches, bone aches (especially in wrists, finger joints and ankles), brain fog, bloating (on and off, and in strange places like my fingers, thighs and ankles - I developed cankles for a week, it was pretty hilarious), occasional dry eyes where my eyes will hurt and water incessantly for about a minute, hair loss (hair line and now eyebrows and eyelashes (it seems my leg hairs grow back slower in between shaves as well, so there's an unexpected bonus!ha!), breathlessness, insensitivity to the cold, pins and needles (but infrequently - could just be random pins and needles!) and, to some extent, weight gain (I have put on about a stone and a half, but fall in a healthy range because I was very slim and exercised a lot before all symptoms started). I haven't noticed diarrhoea but my stools have been loose and splattery for a while (if you get what I mean!), I pass solids about twice to three times a day - don't know if this is normal or not! I haven't experienced insomnia, quite the opposite - I can sleep for up to twelve hours (but always wake up groggy, never fresh).

I have also experienced high anxiety and low mood following anxious periods. This led to a one off episode of psychosis in June last year. I had two months of work, took medication for anxiety and was known to a psychology home treatment team. Since this time, I have seen a therapist weekly and really worked on the mental health symptoms. My therapist and I take self recorded data of my levels of anxiety monthly and they have significantly dropped. I no longer really experience it. I get low mood when I'm fatigued but I do yoga and meditation to combat this. Also, I am a very positive person and have made a choice to just have faith in the universe that things will be OK and this really helps me (I guess you could call it a pig headed optimism). I also make use of my support network. Ultimately, I feel I have got this reduced and under control.

I am also a bit of a type 'A' personality and perfectionist but have really worked on this during therapy and can list successful behaviour and perception changes.

Current symptoms

The symptoms have never really fully gone away, I've just ignored them and carried on best I can. The fatigue and pain are the worst really, they impact on daily life the most.

However, recently my hair loss has got worse, I am losing my eyebrows fairly steadily. Also fatigue and pain have got worse recently as well.

I seem to have had more bloating recently, it comes and goes.

Current hypotheses

Last year myself and my psychology team hypothesised that I was burnt out from the years of stress and had as such developed anxiety, which had led to fatigue and other symptoms.

At the time I think this was the most parsimonious hypotheses. However, I have systematically and fully addressed my psychological symptoms and they have reduced and don't really occur now. Plus, apart from all the physical symptoms i'm in a great place personally with my life and actually generally happiest I've been in years.

Yet the fatigue remains. Plus, that hypothesis doesn't really account for why I am losing hair, bloating etc.

My new hypothesis is that having ruled out mental health as the only cause, I want to re-explore physical / medical influences.

Plan of action

I feel that I have not really have a consistent, systematic assessment of my physical health. I have seen lots of GPs and they seem to just throw about hypotheses rather than create a list of what it might be and knock down hypotheses (i.e. the scientist practitioner model).

As such, I am now taking matters fully into my own hands. I have ruled out MS after an MRI scan that came back fine.

I am now exploring the thyroid / endocrinologist side of things. Reading on here I was surprised to see how difficult this can be. As such, this is my current plan:

- I have had some blood tests from the GP, waiting on results. Unfortunately, he did not really involve me in a conversation about what and why so I am also going to ask for all my medical records so I can figure it out myself.

- I am going to get a full thyroid health check from medichecks.

- I am booking an appointment with a private endocrinologist in Birmingham (GP refused to refer me), it is Professor Neil Gittoes

- I am going to ask GP for a Gluten intolerance check, if they say no I will get a private one

- If these all actions lead to dead ends, I will research other things the symptoms could be and explore those.

- If that leads to dead ends I will see a dietitian / nutritionist and explore the murky world of food intolerance

- If that leads to a dead end I'll go see one of those functional medicine people and then other such non western medicine specialists (but coming from a scientific background I really hope I can figure it out through western medicine)

Questions:

The medichecks website has so many options, its confusing. Which one would you recommend I go for?

Has anyone heard of Professor Neil Gittoes at the Birmingham Thyroid Clinic? Any good as a practitioner? - PM me for this please, I'm not down for professionals being lambasted on the internet.

Any general thoughts you have on my journey - a cliche but it really is a journey!

Thank you for your help

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

lookingforanswers1

For a full picture you need

TSH

FT4

FT3

Thyroid antibodies

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

You can get this with a Medichecks Thyroid Check UltraVit test.

medichecks.com/thyroid-func...

As you have mentioned stress, and because thyroid and adrenals are connected, I would also do a 24 hour adrenal stress test to include cortisol and DHEA and you can do this with either Regenerus or Genova Diagostics. There's no difference in the test, although Regenerus is a bit less hassle as they email you with a link to your results, whereas Genova sends results to ThyroidUK as your "practioner" as they don't deal with the general public, then ThyroidUK sends the results on to you.

Regenerus - thyroiduk.org/tuk/testing/r...

Genova - thyroiduk.org/tuk/testing/g...

I think that would be a good start. You can post your results on here (please include the reference ranges as they differ from lab to lab) for members to comment and then take it from there.

[lookingforanswers1 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you for the useful information. Can I ask, why cortisol? I know it can indicate high stress, but what medically can be done about that? Thank you again.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to lookingforanswers1]

Adrenals and thyroid work together. One popular private doctor always recommends addressing adrenals if there is a problem before starting thyroid hormone. There are supplements that can help reduce high cortisol, and some that can help low cortisol, and some that can support adrenals.

[lookingforanswers1 in reply to SeasideSusie]

So if adrenals are out of whack, then are addressed and are set right, the thyroid may right itself and symptoms decrease?

May as who the doctor is please?

[lookingforanswers1 in reply to lookingforanswers1]

Because I am looking for a good private doctor and am willing to travel.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to lookingforanswers1]

I'm not an adrenal expert, I can only tell you what I have read. Some people need to support their adrenals all the time. It is Dr Peatfield who says to start treating adrenals before the thyroid. He resigned his GMC registration because he couldn't treat patients with hypothyroidism properly - he learnt the old fashioned way and knows more about thyroid that most doctors. He isn't in the best of health now and only runs his clinic from Crawley, he has cut down his workload. He can't prescribe now as he is no longer GMC registered, but he can advise.

It would be worth getting his book "The Thyroid and How to Make it Healthy"

amazon.co.uk/Your-Thyroid-H...

He is the only doctor we can name on the forum as we have his consent.

If you wish to be recommended any other doctors, you'll need to post a new thread, say what you're looking for, the area and how far you're willing to travel. Replies will have to be by private message only.

You can also email Dionne for the list of thyroid friendly doctors, then ask on the forum for feedback on any you're interested in. Again replies will have to be by private message.

[e-mail]

[lookingforanswers1 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you, all very useful.

I have emailed Dionne.

I have also ordered an adrenal test.

I will probably see what happens with the private one i'm booked in with now, but this has been very useful, thank you.

[Skylane2]

I don’t live in the U.K. but in the US 3 years ago after most of my hair fell out and I had consistent hives break out, I saw an endocrinologist and was diagnosed with Hasimotos Thyroiditis You have described most of my other symptoms so, I’m thinking this could be your diagnosis also. Please see your endocrinology professor soon,and hopefully he will be able to help you solve your problem

[lookingforanswers1 in reply to Skylane2]

Thanks for your reply, in my limited reading and knowledge I've wondered if that's what it could be too. I'm following it up properly this time, rather than sitting on my symptoms and trying to attribute it all to mental health. I have a fully range of blood tests booked for next week and an appointment with an endocrinologist booked in.

I hope you're health has been healing since your diagnosis, all the best to you.