Thyroid and the menopause

[JenniferW]

I am struggling rather with my thyroid levels and the effect of the menopause and HRT. In addition I seem to be particularly sensitive to the dosage. The history is as follows

I am underactive, hashimotos.

I was taking 50mg levothyroxine early last year. I became overactive during the summer suffering severe anxiety amongst other symptoms and following a blood test and discussion with the doctor my dose was lowered to 50 mg five days a week and 25 mg two days a week. I was still anxious so lowered it again to 50mg four days a week and 25mg three days a week and felt better.

I am giving all these details to make it clear that I am not exaggerating when I say I am sensitive to the dose!

This summer I started HRT. After a few weeks I realised I was now underactive, lots of symptoms, treacle brain, croaky voice, dry hair etc. But the menopause symptoms were getting better. So using logic, I upped my dose back to the 50mg a day every day I was originally taking.

That sent me to really overactive, not helped by a nasty cold triggering an immune system flare up. I have been slowly reducing my dose back down, but I am now be back down to 25 mg twice a week and still feeling anxious with horrible rushes of adrenaline in the morning, although I need to give it a few more weeks at this level. At this rate I might be back down to the 3 doses a week of 25mg that I felt underactive on....

So my questions are:

Does your thyroid level wander around a lot during the menopause? Should I just have left well alone and waited for it to sort itself out after starting the HRT? And is it normal to be the sensitive to the thyroid dose? Surely my body should be doing some management of the thyroid level still, it's not like I had it removed like a colleague of mine.

[NWA6]

Hi JenniferW. That all sounds horrid. In order to help you further, do you have a history of results to refer to. It would be better to get a blood test before you make changes to doses.

[JenniferW in reply to NWA6]

Hi NWA6, thank you for your sympathy. Unfortunately I upped the dose and then had a blood test two weeks later when I had some other ones due, so it isn't much use as I have since dropped the dose again (this time on the advice of a doctor). I have been looking around the internet again and this time managed to find some useful links. Apparently not only does the menopause and HRT affect the thyroid levels, having a period does too. I will have another test when the current level has settled.