Changing estrogen levels and bad hypothyroid symptoms?

[owl87]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask if anyone has knowledge of changing estrogen/progesterone levels and hypothyroidism? I am currently undermedicated and raising but since my periods returned last October I have had trouble with very bad days (which I previously though was caused by raising attempts) and terrible pms

I keep detailed symptom notes and have recently observed that my bad days and pms always occur at the same time of the cycle and follow the exact pattern of when estrogen rises or hormones change in the menstrual cycle. The symptoms I get are terrible uncomfortable thrumming chest/palpitations, uneven and sometimes faster heartbeat, extreme afternoon fatigue even more than usual, anxiety, hot flushes/adrenaline rushes in night - always in the week before my period -, headaches, insomnia and worse than my normal lightheadedness and constipation. Could estrogen or hormone changes be causing such havoc with my hypothyroidism? Is there anything I can do or is it a case of just trying to get my dose up to resolve it?

Huge thanks!

[Hidden]

I find symptoms (night sweats in particular) around the same time of the month are exacerbated by being under medicated. I would say there is some correlation... (I also log symptoms).

[owl87 in reply to Hidden]

Ah thank you! I was definitely thinking it could be exacerbated by being undermedicated! I never used to get pms like this or at all really when healthy which is why I thought it could be connected!

[radd]

owl87,

Yes, absolutely.

Hashi can cause chaos in the reproductive system and other as all are interconnected (ie HPT, HPA, HPG axis) to the immune system.

Steroid hormones (including O & P) influence the development of immune cells & modulate the output of the immune system. Many immune cells have receptors for these hormones, including many of the immune cells responsible for creating autoimmunity.

The first half of our menstrual cycle hormones is very connected to immune responses (so more likely to see an increase in allergy & inflammation, ie more likely Hashi symptoms if antibody inflammation is high), and the second part suppresses the immune response in an effort to retain a possible embryo implanting in the uterus (I so love this).

All hormones are dependant on one another in numerous feed-back systems so any deficiency (or elevation) may have repercussions somewhere up the line. Raises in oestrogen also encourages raises in protein carriers that alters the amount of hormone ‘frees,' risking making us more suseptable to symptoms.

Then cortisol elevations/deficiencies contribute. The HPA & HPT-Axis should work in parallel, and cortisol and TSH should correlate but whose adrenals are actually 100% when long term Hashi is at play. Also, some sex hormones activate some of the specific genes playing a role in Hashi symptom flares. Hence many members unfortunately find they become more Hashi symptomatic around the time of their period.

[owl87 in reply to radd]

Wow thank you for this detailed explanation! As awful as it is to experience it is very fascinating to see just how reliant on each other our hormones are. One out of place and everything goes to pot! When I first looked up bad pms I saw it said it can be caused by hormone imbalance and with undermedicated hypothyroid I’m clearly experiencing that but I had no idea about the different phases and autoimmunity and that raising estrogen can affect the frees - today I’m experiencing awful symptoms and looked at my cycle tracker and I’m at the start of the estrogen rising period again. Il definitely be keeping this in mind going forward with trying to raise to better free levels!

[radd in reply to owl87]

owl87,

For further info read anything you can find from Datis Kharrazian.

We used to have to evidence written facts on the forum with links, etc but now that's changed, and I seem to have lost lots of my old stuff 🤪.

[owl87 in reply to radd]

Thank you I will look that up! 😊