my daughter and myself are hypothyroid, my daughter struggled for years before been diagnosed.
She tried levo. NDT. and T3 only, felt best on T3, but never fully well.
She has been taking 75mcg. daily but feels more of her symptoms are returning, and has she has been getting really bad heart pounding does not want to increase her dose.
She was born with a reflux on one kidney which was corrected at the age of six, but because of the infections this had caused, her kidney is now very shrivelled and has been since the operation.
Her other kidney is larger to compensate.
My question is if one kidney is shrivelled and not working would the adrenal gland on top of that kidney also be shrivelled and also not working. If this is the case does the other adrenal gland compensate, like the kidney does, or could her adrenal gland output be compromised and this could be causing her many of her symptoms.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Many thanks.
Written by
lucylocks
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"She has been taking 75mcg. daily but feels more of her symptoms are returning"
Is that of Levo? 75mcg is not a large dose. How long has she been on it and what kind of hypothyroidism does she have? Hashimoto's?
Post some of the recent test results and that should help understand what is happening. When first starting on thyroxine replacement it is normal for an increase in thyroxine to improve symptoms for a while, then you start feeling worse again. That usually means you are almost ready for the next increase. I don't know about NDT or T3, but it seems likely that her thyroid is deteriorating and she needs an increase.
Right, I don't know enough about T3 dosage, but it sounds a lot in that case. The thing is to reduce or increase gradually, though I don't think it takes weeks with T3 as it does with thyroxine as the T3 half life is much shorter
It is definitely plausible that the shrivelled kidney could have a compromised adrenal gland. But I have absolutely no idea if one adrenal gland will compensate for the other. It depends on the symptoms she's having as to whether she would be considered to be suffering from hypoadrenalism - many of us do though, especially if we're also hypothyroid. Has she asked to be checked out for Addison's disease?
She did have a Short Synathin ( sorry spelling) test which they said was O.K. but it was not done until 10.15am. and she was not told to fast and was even given cups of tea, which I have since learn't this was not the right way to do it. This was even done through a private endo.
Her starting cortisol level was 226 no ranges were given and the endo. said this was O.K.
In terms of NHS endos I know what you mean.... I only go through my GP and order private tests these days (as I am not on t3). However you may have some luck if you go for a functional doctor - unfortunately Dr Myhill is fully engaged. Her website has links to a pool of them.
If one of the adrenal glands is compromised then the other adrenal gland will compensate & still produce enough cortisol. I'm in a Cushing's group where many of the members have had one adrenal gland removed due to a benign tumour, invariably their remaining adrenal gland will produce enough cortisol. You don't need to fast for the short synacthen test, so having food & fluids is fine. The SST is best done around 9am but having hers done at 10.15 is still fine. Do you know what her cortisol level increased to? That's the important reading. Her base cortisol at 226 is no the low side, but it would be good to know what it stimmed to (rose), as that shows how well her adrenal glands are working.
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