Consultant NHS

[Fox78]

Hi all

Not posted for a while but just wanted to comment on my recent experience as I know so many of us find it hard to get the right treatment and advice

I’ve been under a consultant at UHCW happy to disclose if people want to PM me

He’s been a real breath of fresh air he sent me for a scan on my thyroid as I asked for this and has routinely monitored my bloods inclu vits and t3 and has agreed to now up my dose from 125/150 to 175 even though my tsh is in range and so is my t4 albeit it has dropped down to 17 (9-26)

He also said this was the main indicator and he didn’t really go on the tsh which was 0.17 (0.25-4.6)

He is very sympathetic to symptoms not just results and I know my symptoms have returned recently so I need a dose adjustment

I would never have got this from my GP as we know they just go on TSH...

I had to really push to get referred but I was persistent!

One thing I am confused by is he seems to think I have an autoimmune condition but not hashimotos

My scan showed an atrophic thyroid which has nearly disappeared my antibodies were 32 but when they’ve been tested before they were 85 he said it was autoimmune but not the hashis variety?

I have PCOS and he is also referring me to a separate clinic for that too

I also take LDN from a private clinic which I definitely think has helped me

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Rest of the world calls all autoimmune hypothyroidism Hashimoto's.

Here in UK technically Hashimoto's is autoimmune with enlarged goitre.

Shrunken and shrivelled thyroid is usually Ord's Thyroiditis

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ord...

[shaws Administrator]

Re PCOS - this is an excerpt I copied a while ago. I don't have a link:

"Multiple Ovarian Cysts as a Major Symptom of Hypothyroidism#

The case I describe below is of importance to women with polycystic ovaries. If they have evidence, such as a high TSH, that conventional clinicians accept as evidence of hypothyroidism, they may fair well. But the TSH is not a valid gauge of a woman's tissue thyroid status. Because of this, she may fair best by adopting self-directed care. At any rate, for women with ovarian cysts, this case is one of extreme importance.

In 2008, doctors at the gynecology department in Gunma, Japan reported the case of a 21-year-old women with primary hypothyroidism. Her doctor referred her to the gynecology department because she had abdominal pain and her abdomen was distended up to the level of her navel.

At the gynecology clinic she underwent an abdominal ultrasound and CT scan. These imaging procedures showed multiple cysts on both her right and her left ovary.

The woman's cholesterol level and liver function were increased. She also had a high level of the muscle enzyme (creatine phosphokinase) that's often high in hypothyroidism.

Blood testing also showed that the woman had primary hypothyroidism from autoimmune thyroiditis.

It is noteworthy that the young woman's ovarian cysts completely disappeared soon after she began thyroid hormone therapy. Other researchers have reported girls with primary hypothyroidism whose main health problems were ovarian cysts or precocious puberty. But this appears to be the first case in which a young adult female had ovarian cysts that resulted from autoimmune-induced hypothyroidism.

The researchers cautioned clinicians: "To avoid inadvertent surgery to remove an ovarian tumor, it is essential that a patient with multiple ovarian cysts and hypothyroidism be properly managed, as the simple replacement of a thyroid hormone could resolve the ovarian cysts."[1]

Reference:

1. Kubota, K., Itho, M., Kishi, H., et al.: Primary hypothyroidism presenting as multiple ovarian cysts in an adult woman: a case report. Gynecol. Endocrinol., 24(10):586-589, 2008.