I’m looking for advice please, I’ve never been medically minded so apologies if I sound dim.
At the age of 37 I started getting hot flushes, I was having over 60 a day which got worse along with all other symptoms below, I was told I was peri menopausal, by age 46 I stopped having periods now 49 I still feel as crap as I did 12years ago, drs have put this down to menopause, I can’t think straight head feels foggy, I sleep between 2-4 hrs max a night that’s if I’m lucky as I’m having hot sweats, all my joints ache, I obviously have no energy due to constantly feeling tired, I used to be a fitness freak working out for 3hrs a day 7 days a week, now I barely get through each day, I walk my dogs 2-3hrs a day but that’s not exercise to me as I’m not working up a sweat, I’m just exhausted and low all the time.
Drs just want to give me HRT and antidepressants which I don’t want, I’m only low due to my body not doing what I want it too, every time I have bloods done I’m told it’s not my thyroid as test all ok but I’ve recently met 3 people in the past 2 wks who advised me to get bloods done privately as all my symptoms could be due to a under active thyroid I’m just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation?
Thanks in advance to anyone that replies.
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Cheekyme
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If they’re only testing tsh, you can check your thyroid more thoroughly by additionally having free T3 and free T4 tested. They don’t usually do it on the NHS, but you could get it checked yourself. Eg Medichecks.
Hi, I’d definitely advise to do bloods privately and also get your vitamins checked. I feel so much better from having my vitamins at an optimal level. Medichecks have offers on Thursdays- you may want to wait until then. Do post your results (with ranges) on the forum so others can advise. Although the readings may be in range according to GPS, they may not be optimal for you.
Agree completely with Buddy195 . Don't take any supplements before for at least a week as it will skew results for B12 levels which are very important (actually refrain for months for that one) and Biotin mucks up the thyroid tests as they use it during the lab tests. Go for the full package it's worth it to get where you are! The Medichecks thyroid vitamin ultra I think it's called, get it on offer. Need to know your thyroid antibodies etc.
For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies
Ask GP to test vitamin levels or get full testing privately
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or all vitamins
Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random
Insomnia can be hypothyroid symptom, and/or low vitamin D and low B vitamins
Come back with new post once you get results and ranges
Go to thyroiduk.org and click onto ABOUT TESTING for all the information about Home Testing kits. Medichecks have Special Offers on Thursdays. Tests needed - TSH - FT4 - FT3 and Anti-bodies TPO & Tg. Also B12 - Folate - Ferritin - VitD. Don't bother to request Dr's opinion - come back here and post results in a new post where you will receive excellent advice ...
Cheekyme, I was a bit struck when you said you walk for 2-3 hours per day. This is an awful lot of activity! I understand what you mean about how it doesn't feel like exercise to you because you used to be able to do an awful lot of strenuous excercise, I went though the same thing when I first got sick. It was a very traumatic process for me to realise that the kind of e. g. Yoga I used to do coming in from work to relax and didn't call excercise was now enormously too much for me.
Even though it doesn't feel like excercise, if you have thyroid illness and your body is short on thyroid hormone, it is still using up loads of your hormone. Active thyroid hormone is needed in every tissue and organ in the body to make energy, if you're using it up out walking then you won't have it available to repair joints, relax your body at night, keep your temperature stable, and give you the energy you need to move around and do everyday things. It is definitely worth trying cutting out some of the excercise and using the time meditating, lying down watching TV or reading, or something else very relaxing. For me learning to relax more effectively and increasing the time I was resting gave a big improvement in how comfortable I was all day.
Thanks for your reply, I force myself to do the walks due to my dog, we walk to work then back home as I’m self employed with next to no time for myself so need to incorporate her walks into the day, i have 1 day off a week which isn’t relaxing as trying to catch up on shopping & appointments etc, I’m not a feel sorry sympathy type person but I just need to get to the bottom of this, have just ordered a full blood vitamin test online so will hopefully find out one way or another if it is thyroid soon.
Unfortunately we often have to carve out some time in order to get better. Your life sounds very stressful, and that will be taking a big toll on your health.
I think we often assume that we should be able to do everything, rush around all day, without considering how our body is coping with it, we just expect our health to catch up with us. If we have an illness we can pop a pill or take some treatment and the goal is it will get us back to being able to rush around again without changing anything in our lives.
My experience of illness has been that it doesn't really work this way. Sometimes our bodies are just not able to do all the things we'd love to be able to do. There is no personal failure or weakness in that, it's just how bodies work. It's more that there's a huge social stigma telling us we are only good and valuable people if we GO, GO, GO all the time. Taking proper care of ourselves requires breaking through all these assumptions and realising the real brave and successful choice is to work hard on resting, cutting down the amount of rushing about in the day or the week, and giving up some of the stuff that feels terribly important but that actually we can live without.
Not an easy process at all, and most people will scream and struggle and rage against it a lot
Have you ever had any thyroid tests? If not, ask at the surgery for one (emphasise you need TSH, T3 and T4 at minimum, as well as antibodies to see if you have the most common thyroid problem. Best to get Ferritin, vitamin B12, folate and vitamin D tested as well if you can. If all else fails, you will need to get a private test.
Get a copy of all results, past and present and post them here. If in the UK you have a legal right of a print out without being charged. Ask the receptionist and they might do one on the spot.
Does anyone in your family have a history of thyroid problems? That would give more of a reason to request a test.
Thankyou everyone for your advice, I tried to get further tests by drs but he said if it was thyroid it would show up in the basic test he did which is obviously rubbish so last night I ordered the medichecks thyroid ultra vitamins test they have 10% off, so hopefully I will be able to post results by next week,
Hi...im 36....and after reading ur symptoms i feel its the same for me...my thyroid tests always comes within range but symptoms of depression n anxiety clogs me and everyday i feel somethingd wrong with me...i hv 2 keep myself busy by pulling myslf up hard....
It’s really difficult especially if you’re on your own, I have no one to help with menial jobs etc which would give me some down time, it may well be peri menopause for you which many of my friends are going through, I was 37 when menopause started, have drs suggested it may be early menopause? until I get results I won’t know if it’s all down to thyroid, I’m now 49 and post menopause but all symptoms are still there, night sweats are getting worse now for me so hope bloods give me an answer. You wouldn’t feel as depressed if you knew what you were dealing with, maybe you need to get bloods done privately as well.
I had a 10 year old daughter and a 4 year old son when I was your age and I found it very tiring because my husband worked long hours and I had no Grandparents to help out.
Only sleeping 2-4hrs a night could be a reason too. I myself had to finally go the Bioidentical route, I was not getting any sleep felt dead inside and I have to admit I'm back to my old self. I'm also hypo but this was all menopause and I'm 3 yrs into it .
My sleep issue has been like this for 10yrs I don’t get on with sleeping tabs by the time I fall asleep after taking them it’s early hours then I feel hung over all day and getting up is harder than not taking them at all.
The hot flashes and sleep disturbances are typical of menopausal hormone problems. When those problems were making my life a living hell, going back on estrogen and progesterone stopped those problems in their tracks. What I know now is that you should push for bioidentical hormones...estradiol and micronized progesterone. Remember all the problems that came out from the Women's Health Inititative? It seems that the root cause of that was synthetic progestin -- provera.
The other problems you have are probably caused by low thyroid hormones. And it's an excellent idea to get your nutrients optimized.
There was no increase in breast cancer among the women in the arm receiving estrogen only (those who had no uterus that needed protection). Recent research has pointed to the type of progesterone being used in the Women's Health Initiative -- Provera, which is a synthetic progestin -- as the potential cause of the additional cases of breast cancer in the combination HRT arm of the study.
Using bioidentical hormones (estradiol as the estrogen, and micronized progesterone) has shown a reduction in breast cancer. "Progesterone was associated with lower breast cancer risk compared to synthetic progestins when each is given in combination with estrogen, relative risk 0.67; 95 % confidence interval 0.55-0.81." ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/274...
In the U.S. the brand name is PROMETRIUM. Don't know what it might be called in the U.K.
PROMETRIUM Capsules are an oral dosage form of micronized progesterone which is chemically identical to progesterone of ovarian origin.
I have read about that but I didn't want to take the risk. I did have the Marina coil for 15 months and that made me very ill .... I do know that it does suit some women but it did not suit me.
I was also having hot flushes when I started the menopause, like you I woke up every hour at night with a flush. It was unbearable and I was having trouble concentrating at work.
There has been some controversy around HRT, but I can recommend trying it to get the flushes under control. You can start on a low dose, which I did and it made a massive impact on my quality of life. I could sleep through the night again and felt more like a human being. A disrupted night's sleep over years can have serious health consequences, so if HRT will allow you to get a good rest and feel better again, its well worth exploring.
After a while I could dial the hormones down and I am now taking 2 tablets a week, which is a very low dose, adequately controlling my symptoms.
I would do the thyroid test as well to see if everything is okay in that area, but I can tell you from experience that getting no or next to no sleep at night will wipe you out if your thyroid is healthy or struggling! Good luck!
I had hot flushes with Graves' disease so having thyroid problems can give you similar symptoms to the menopause ... that is why a lot of women who are in their 40s get given HRT instead of levothyroxine. I was given hormone patches by my Doctor because he thought I was going through the menopause. I didn't use them because my mother died from breast cancer in her 40s and I didn't want to take the risk.
Cheekyme.... I agree that you may need blood tests and take B+ vitamin etc., but I need to say that you do not need to work up a sweat in order to stay fit or when you do exercises. Walk your dog but why so many hours each and every day! Too much is just, too much. You sound exhausted instead of sick. Get a good rest and try to relax about exercising so much.
I doubt it is the menopause at your age ... I have had hormone problems in the past and I blame being on the pill from the age of 15 and just stopping it twice to have my children. I eventually stopped the pill when I was 49 which I didn't want to do and that is when all my health problems started.
It was early menopause, not bleed for 3yrs, couldn’t go on the pill as my body don’t tolerate progesterone, it’s the problems with aching joints , foggy head etc that I can’t cope with
Hi have been told the same, went private best thing I've done, told by doctor GPS waste of time, thyroid tests done, he sat and explained in great detail how hormones work and where he can see my problems, I've seen all sorts of specialists as diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, started at menopause for me, which I believe can cause thyroid issues too for some. What area in the country are you from, doctor in Lancashire I would recommend.
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