A) 2 months ago I was told that I have borderline hypothyroid (4.50) and that if I wanted to have a baby (cos I had a stillbirth at 6 months during that time) I needed to bring Tsh level to 2.5 for a healthy pregnancy. I visited a private clinic in Harley street and the Dr gave me 50 mg. After taking it for 2 days I lost 2 it in 2 days, I got heart palpations, I had mental breakdowns (where I would wear a pulse metre all night to check my levels cos I couldn’t breath properly) and I had erratic behaviour (where I would fight everyone). I’ve never been like this, I stopped medication and got tested with my gp a few days later and got tested, my results came to 2.75 in literally 4 days. Is this common? What does this suggest about my body?
B) now in this current month, I tested myself and my tsh level has shot up to 11.9 which is out of nowhere- dr recommends 25 mg of levothyroxine and half a table for the first week then 25 for the first 1 month then he will assess me. Do you guys think I will have the same reaction as I stated above (in Sec A)? How quickly will my levels drop to 2.5 ?roughly speaking) If I feel the same symptoms what shall I do? Is this common? Is this a case of adaptation or over reaction or maybe the medication? Pls let me know
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Yalda94
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When I started thyroid medication I ended up in A and E with palpitations, fast pulse & extreme agitation. Although 50mcg Levo is the usual starting dose, I faired better on 25mcg. When I was settled on this, I increased by 12.5mcg increments over time (a pill cutter came in handy for this). This experience has made me more of a tortoise than a hare when making changes to my medication. I now only increase/ or decrease super slowly. Best wishes to you Yalda94.
Omg I also ended up going A and E and even made them do a cgc scan on my heart (I had to lie I have chest pain just to check it out). When you initially started it, were you living your life normally? Could you go gym without overthinking your heart will race like there’s no tomorrow?
I was a keen runner prior to having a thyroid condition. After my trip to A and E, I was referred to cardiologist. I felt better after the cardiologist put me on 24 hour monitor and reassured me all was ok. I took it easy exercising for a couple of months after that and made sure my heart rate didn’t go higher than my usual cardio peak. I am a worrier and was checking my Fitbit constantly. Similar symptoms did happen on another occasion after this (when my FT4 was over range) but this resolved when I reduced my dose. I’m ok to exercise now, but due to knee problems have swapped my run shoes for a spin bike & Pilates membership. I’ve also ditched the Fitbit, as I found I was overthinking/ checking too much!
I would ask for a full thyroid check including TSH, fT3, fT4 and antibodies. It is possible that you have autoimmune thyroiditis and this gives you erratic hormone levels. If the GP is not prepared to do this you can get a private test. I generally don't believe in testing antibodies but I would in your case. Note doctors can't generally request fT3 so they will have to make it very clear on the form why it should be done.
I’ve done an ultra sound which shows I’m prone to having hashamitos but my antibody test shows me that I have no antibodies. Im cleared off that for now but it’s worth mentioning if I react to meds again. Thank you!
Does it count that my hormones are quite all over the place because I just suffered a stillbirth (6 month miscarriage)? It was 2.75 two months ago and then now that I’ve checked 11.9. It’s quite crazy I know!
This is beyond my knowledge. Female hormones, oestrogen at least, can affect thyroid tests but I haven’t heard of such effects on TSH. I think your TSH changes are unusual but can’t think why other than your thyroid might have erratic secretion or possibly is declining rapidly. You could follow your doctor’s advice and see what happens to your TSH.
I’m sure I’ve read here before that it doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t got autoimmune thyroid disease just because you don’t have over-range antibodies? It just means there weren’t any in evidence at the time of the test.
I would say that if the scan shows evidence of Hashimoto’s, Yalda94 probably has it??
Yalda94 , rarely, some people appear to be very sensitive to levothyroxine.
Do you remember what brand you were taking? Sometimes it’s not the levothyroxine part of the tablet at all—it’s the excipients (the fillers which bulk it out into a little pill).
Sometimes, it’s because people are half expecting trouble—it’s sort of like the placebo effect in reverse, if you like. I’m sure you’ll have read about people who are given a drug to make them feel better, all nicely packaged up in a brown bottle and hey presto, they feel better—and it turns out to be a sugar pill and the improvement couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with it. Well, stands to reason the process can happen in reverse too…
25mcg Levo really isn’t very much, so in theory at least it shouldn’t give you problems (at least not until you reach the point where your body is begging for more levothyroxine because it isn’t enough—and it won’t be enough because a replacement dose of levothyroxine will be at least 75mcg per day.
Just to add—it does happen that people have unexpected reactions as Buddy195 has said—I’m definitely not meaning to suggest it was all in your head—just that it might be helpful to remember that it’s a tiny dose when getting yourself through the early stages. You could even start at half a 25mcg pill (12.5mcg) if feeling really nervous and I’m sure you are 🤗—but with a TSH of 11.9, this is now a problem that isn’t going to sort itself out without taking replacement hormones. It might improve in the short term but in the longer term it’s likely that you’ll become increasingly hypothyroid.
It would be well worth finding out whether vitamin and mineral levels are optimal too. If you’ve been hypothyroid for a while, it’s likely you’ll be low in iron, low in Vit B12, low in folate and low in Vit D, because hypothyroidism interferes with absorption.
Hi I havnt been able to read all sorry but yes my TSH jumped right up to 7.6 when I took hrt patch over a short time later so just that I’m guessing your own hormone input settling back may well have contributed 🤔Lots of good wishes. My DIL was similar and now has lovely baby she took supps that were low
I agree, it could be that her thyroid was playing up and spiked at the same time levothyroxine was started. Could try levothyroxine again just to confirm it’s a problem.
Hi Yalda, so sorry to hear about your loss. If I read your first message correctly does that mean it’s only 2 months since you were last pregnant? The reason I ask is because of post partum thyroiditis, I had this 18 years ago, I remember being all over the place with my mental health, jittery, fractious, exhausted, (more than got two under 5 exhausted) sweats, diarrhoea daily, headaches, lost masses of weight very quickly. All this on no meds and GP saying everything normal. I gave up the best paid job I’ve ever had, couldn’t cope sold the house, moved the whole family across country…Saw an endocrinologist briefly who said it was Post Partum with TSH swinging either side of ‘normal’ he said no meds required and it’ll resolve itself (took 12 months). With occasional hyper swings of weight loss and headaches on and off over the years. 18 years on I now have Hashi’s and hypo symptoms, so what I’m saying is your swinging TSH could be related to post partum thyroiditis might be worth ruling that out as it could be complicating factors if you are hyper swinging with Levo on top. Wishing you all the very best for the future, xx
This is pretty much how my 1st pregnancy ended and nobody really gave us an explanation why this happened. I lost my baby at 25 weeks. Did this really happened because of your thyroid? The results weren't that abnormal. In your case i think you should start with 25mg levothiroxine but once you get a positive result you might have to take more. Usually i was starting the pregnancy at 50mg and after few weeks the doctor was increasing it to 75. What really help me massively it was a baby aspirine every day during the pregnancy. My results were fall normal but because of the still born my hematologist prescribed me aspirine daily and i think this was what helped for a healthy pregnancy. I also bought a blood pressure monitor to check my blood pressure every day and a monitor to check my sugar levels every day after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Undetected gestational diabetes can cause still birth. I actually find out i had gestational diabetes during my second pregnancy 23 weeks because i was checking my blood sugars daily. I ended up with insuline for both of my pregnancies but i had 2 healthy girls.
I hope everything goes well with your next pregnancy 🙏 💓
Oh wow that’s so delightful to hear that you’ve two healthy babies. I had a similar situation, I had a stillbirth at 6 months too and the doctors are now telling me I have to take aspirin because the baby had died due to placental thrombi (something to do with blood and oxygen not being delivered to the baby). Was your second pregnancy normal and did the aspirin really help you? I’m just so paranoid because now I have thyroid and also I’m going to try and conceive and I have ptsd regarding pregnancy
I know exactly how you feel...but to be honest something went wrong but it was probably not because of your thyroid. My baby died from the same reason. Hypoxia. He didn't have any oxygen due to clots. Remember undetected gestational diabetes can cause clots in the placenta. My thrombofilia tests were all normal. My thyroid test were all very normal too. My doctor gave me tinzaparin 💉 injections to take during the day and aspirine at night. For both pregnancies. Because i lost the next one as well at 6 weeks the doctor told me to start taking baby aspirine before i even get pregnant. When i started trying for baby i started the aspirine. When i had a positive pregnancy result i started the injections tinzaparin. Everything went really smoothly i delivered the babies 37weeks and a year later 38 weeks because of my diabetes and they are very healthy little girls☺. my miracle pill was really baby aspirine and later on tinzaparin(blood thinners) your case sound very similar to mine. I hope you have chosen a good hospital and you see a hematologist. I am happy to have a chat with you any time you want
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