An update on my progress.

[biowarrior]

I Just want to update you guys, in case anyone remembers my previous posts. As you guys were really supporting in dire times.

I was a frequent poster, since I began thyroid medication a year ago. And I struggled immensely to find the right dose— I had a TSH of about 3.2 and sub-optimal T4/T3 levels after taking finasteride for 3 months, and then my thyroid crashed majorly and I had a T4 below the range and T3 at the bottom and a TSH of about 5, which lasted for 2 months. I then began Testosterone replacement therapy, and my thyroid may have picked up if i had let it.

I began NDT and probably didnt give my body enough time to recover after the crash, I had gaven it a few months.

Anyway, from being on about 3 grains, 3.5 at my highest, I have slowly whittled down and was doing okish on 50 mcg per day of T4, probably a bit under-medicated, but not too bad. I don’t have results to back it up, but I definitely felt overstimulated on my NDT at points, and do not have a conversion problem, so T4 was superior. When I was on the NDT, my T4 was low, and I was just volatile on the peaks of the T3 which I feel were over the range, for parts of the day.

I thought I could come off very soon, then recently I began exercising every day as opposed to every other day, at about 40 minutes running and Sauna + my cycling commute, and my thyroid crashed hard. I really like the exercise though and look healthier overall, but this is a step back.

Ive jumped up to 100mcg and hope I can recover and stay there with the exercise. And lose weight from about 80kg to 70kg, as surely that would be easier on my thyroid, in the long term.

Im a bit demoralised as I thought I was heading for a recovery, but Im afraid it may always be partial. I still take testosterone and will have to take that for life, which has helped me massively and probably allows the thyroid to improve.

My main symptoms, the last few weeks have been little sexual function, and a bit depressed, and sub optimal brain function, before crashing and suddenly being freezing and literally 0 sexual function. When I was dosing down, say on about a grain and 50mcg, I was warmer than other people, so I definitely have gone from too high to too low.

I feel like 100mcg isnt that larger dose for a male, and I definitely was pretty much ok on 50mcg if I didnt exercise.

Any thoughts?

I dispensed with the blood tests, as I felt I could do it on feel and they skewed my dosing in the past, and I could never get a good reading on the digital thermometer, even though I bought the best.

I kind of regret not getting a thyroid test when I was on 50mcg at the beginning of the month, but I feel I have quite good intuition with my hormones now and my levels are so skewed by exercise etc.

[SilverAvocado]

I've got two comments based on what you've said, and skimming the titles of your precious posts.

1) Sometimes we don't get back to 100% on thyroid hormone replacement, some people have I put up with 80%, or being somewhere on that spectrum. Thyroid illness is a serious thing, and we will always be ill to some extent, the tablets and lifestyle is just about managing it.

If you rush into life expecting to do everything your able-bodied friends are doing, you may have problems. Things like exercise need to be approached slowly and carefully, really listening to your body and figuring out what you can do, when fatigue kicks in, what extra rest we need, etc. Sounds like you were stable exercising every ther day, and that is a good place to be that you can be pleased with that. If you want to add more I'd say take it super slow, don't jump up to doubling what you're doing in one step.

Ideally, you can avoid any crashing by being really gentle with yourself, and always pulling back to do less when you get a clue you're doing too much. It may be that you won't ever get up to exercising every day, because we do need rest more than other people. With weight loss, some thyroid patients unfortunately never find that easy, but some lucky ones do find it drops off easily once they are on the correct dose. Dieting or increasing exercise can be counter productive, because we are sluggish at making energy, and managing things like energy stored as fat. Sometimes restricting calories slows the system down even further. Some thyroid patients do very well on low carb, high fat, but others feel really ill on it. Again, it's all about being gentle and moving slowly and finding out what your body is capable of.

2) Looking back on all the dosages you've taken you seem to have moved very fast. I don't get the impression you were following best practice, waiting 6 weeks each time, getting blood tests, and then making an adjustment of 25mcg or quarter grain at a time. Rushing about like this will give you confusing results, because it takes the body a long time to really settle on a certain dose. We say 6 weeks till blood testing, but actually the impact continues to develop for many weeks or even months after that time.

I also recommend if trying something like NDT, you really need to give it several months, tune the dose until you've got perfect looking blood tests, and just give it time. A six month trial is a good rule of thumb. Because everything in adjusting hormones is just very slow, and many people give up on a certain thing when they haven't yet experienced being on the perfect dose, which can mean feeling crappy for a few months to get through doses that don't work for you.