Change in weather

[LaurenS91]

I am 27 and currently take 100mg of levothyroxine daily.

Has anyone else noticed their symptoms suddenly reappear. The summer in UK has been wonderful, and I must admit I have barely thought about my hypothyroidism.

These last few days however have been cloudier, wetter and generally colder. All of sudden I suddenly feel exhausted, my skin is worse and I am losing slightly more hair than usual.

Is this a normal reaction to the change in weather? Or just coincidence? I am tempted to request a new blood test but maybe I am just overreacting.

[HughH]

Every call in the body needs the active thyroid hormone T3 to work. As the cell works - muscle, organ etc it uses up the supply of T3. In cold weather the body uses more food and T3 to keep warm.

Similarly exercise also uses more T3 than rest.

[humanbean]

The weather definitely has an impact on the severity of hypothyroidism. It is common for some sufferers to need less levo or other thyroid hormone in hot weather. Obviously the NHS never takes this into account, and expects people to stay on the same dose all year round and for patients to only get one blood test a year (if they are lucky).

This implies that if people can wangle it so that their blood tests are in, say, February then their TSH might be higher, their thyroid hormone levels might be lower, and they might get a higher dose of Levo than if they were tested in the middle of a heatwave. With a higher dose in winter which is continued in summer the patient then has the freedom to lower their dose in summer if they need to.

It's definitely better to get stabilised on dose in winter than in summer.

[Chooselife100]

Same thing happened to me, I got bloods done and my numbers were off and needed more t 4, hope that helps

[Kitten44]

I've been feeling a lot less lethargic and generally better during the heatwave, now my hands are absolutely freezing again, feel tired, etc., so I reckon the weather definitely has an impact. I'm dreading the onset of winter now!!

[LaurenS91 in reply to Kitten44]

Same! I noticed the change in my hair first and the rest soon followed! October-December is also the busiest time at my work! Definitely dreading it.