I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism with a TSH of 5.5, I delayed taking Levothyroxine in case my TSH problem resolved, but six months later it had increased further so I decided to trial 25mg for two months as suggested by my doctor. I took the Levothyroxine for two months and returned for my TSH to be retested, it remained stubbornly unchanged, although the T4 level had increased slightly. I agreed that I should stop the treatment and see how things panned out. Around this time I had a sudden...like a light being turned off sudden...loss of libido. I didn't connect this to the medication but to an extremely stressful period in my life, this was 16 months ago and there has been no return of my libido. I have since studied thyroid dysfunction and have found that consumption of Soy products will raise the TSH. My thyroid "problems" only started after I replaced milk with Soy milk, I have since given this up (after a period of 2.5 years) and my TSH has dropped to 3.9 and T4 is higher than ever before.
Later research for another problem drew my attention to the co-incidence of my Levothyroxine use and loss of libido...unfortunately nothing has improved.
Anybody else have any ideas about this or seen it before?
Thanks
Written by
Steve5678
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Recommend you get FULL thyroid and vitamin testing
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
About 90% of primary hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroid disease
Ask GP to test vitamin levels and thyroid antibodies.....or get full testing privately.....GP won’t test Ft3 unless TSH is out of range
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)
Is this how you do your tests?
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins
Loss of libido is a symptom of hypothyroidism, it's very likely that is the cause rather than the Levothyroxine. You were hypothyroid with a TSH of 5.5, you are still hypothyroid with a TSH of 3.9
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