Is Thyroxine helping my irritable bladder?

[Mistral]

It is some time since I made a post.

I know I was stupid but a couple of years ago I stopped taking my Thyroxine for a short while to see if my hair would stop falling and I was still feeling poorly. My hair didn't stop falling out.

When my GP discovered this he did a Thyroid test and it came back within the normal range so he told me he was stopping my prescription for Thyroxine. I had been taking it for 14 years. Note my original diagnosis was made privately in Scotland by Dr Gordon Skinner who diagnosed by examination and questions. My then Scottish GPs kept telling me I was within the normal range and didn't do anything and didn't seem to particularly care that I was very unwell "the blood tests were right"!

At the time of my decline into Hypothyrodism I also noticed I was running to the toilet a lot, putting it down to old age - it would just come on me and I had no control, it got so bad stopped going out as I had many embarrassing incidents.

I was sent to an incontinence clinic who gave me a list of things to cut out of my diet. It didn't help. After over a year of not taking Thyroxine, with weight gain and feeling awful I started self-medicating with Thyroxine having to buy it myself. I started back on my 100mcg per day, but still not feeling good I was advised by a friend (medically qualified) to up my dose a little, which I have done.

When caring for my daughter yesterday, for some strange reason we started to discuss what dose of Thyroxine I was now taking, I said to her have you noticed I have been here for hours and haven't had to run to the toilet, and it has been like this ever since I upped my Thyroxine dose.

Unknown to me she did a search on her computer to see if there was any connection and she found this, it is highly technical piece but you can get the gist. Unfortunately there has been very little research done, but for whatever reason I have got my life back for which I am truly grateful. Just thought it may interest some of you.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

This would be good subject for survey on here

Time we had a new survey????

LouiseRoberts lynmynott

Questions might include

Have you experienced improvement in urinary continence once optimally treated for hypothyroidism

Did you experienced frequent UTI before being diagnosed or when still hypothyroid

Have you experienced reduction in UTI once optimally treated for hypothyroidism

Did urinary issues only improve once T3 medication was added (T3 or NDT)

[jimh111]

My view is that irritable bladder and IBS originate from intracellular magnesium deficiency and hypothyroidism is one cause of this.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to jimh111]

Interesting theory jimh111 Does that suggest taking magnesium could help, in which case, more info please Or is that being too simplistic ?

[jimh111 in reply to RedApple]

Without going into detail. Low intracellular magnesium leads to smooth muscle contraction (gut and bladder are SM) and enhanced perception of visceral pain via NMDA receptors. Intracellular magnesium is lower in hypothyroidism. Hence taking magnesium will help but you have to resolve the hypothyroidism.

Sorry I can't go into all the evidence, it is a big topic.

[Judithdalston]

I thought it was not my hypothyroidism, but fibromyalgia ( which Dr. Lowe thought was undertreated hypo)...noticed on adding T3 that I had to wee a bit less during the night! Wasn’t UTI or amount of liquid in bladder but more a stimulus to say ‘bladder full’ ( often unnecessary)!