life after thyroidectomy

[Shaz26]

Hi all. Does anyone experience anxiety and jittery feeling after full thyroidectomy? I got my thyroid removed 8 months ago in April 2022, and on Levothyroxine (112mg) for the rest of my life. I had severe anxiety and panic attacks before surgery due to hyperthyroidism. It went away after surgery but now my GP told me I am hyper again according to my last blood work. Doc suggested to skip a day of meds and get blood work in Jan. I am also loosing bones fast,already have osteoporosis doc suggest osteo prescriptions but don’t want that due to side effects. Taking all bone supplements,any advice is appreciated.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Welcome to the forum

Are you based in U.K.

Which brand of levothyroxine are you currently taking

Do you always get same brand levothyroxine at each prescription

ESSENTIAL To test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

What vitamin supplements are you currently taking

What was reason for thyroidectomy

ALWAYS Test thyroid levels early morning, ideally just before 9am and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test…..this gives highest TSH and lowest Ft4

Essential to test TSH, Ft4 and Ft3 together

Anxiety is common symptom of poor conversion of Ft4 to Ft3

[humanbean]

It went away after surgery but now my GP told me I am hyper again according to my last blood work.

You can't be hyperthyroid without a thyroid, although doctors claim it is possible. You can be over-medicated though.

It sounds very likely that your doctor is deciding that you are hyperthyroid based only on TSH. This is not a good way of determining over-medication, or thyroid health, or whether you are hyperthyroid or hypothyroid. You really need to get the full set of TSH, Free T4, and Free T3 tested from the same blood sample, taken at around 8am - 9am having not taken any Levo for 24 hours, and having fasted overnight (except for water) before your blood is taken.

When you were hyperthyroid (i.e. before your thyroid removal) you probably had an extremely low TSH. After removal of your thyroid your TSH should (theoretically) have risen. But many people in your situation find that it doesn't rise. Or if it does it may take many months, possibly years, or might never rise.

There have been people with no thyroid who have had their dose of thyroid hormones reduced to the point where they are in real danger of going into myxedema crisis (or myxedema coma) because a doctor thinks their low TSH means they are hyperthyroid, hence over-medicated.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxed...

The most important measure in a Thyroid Function Test is the Free T3. It is the active thyroid hormone that every cell in the human body needs. Too much will make people hyperthyroid, too little makes people hypothyroid. TSH is simply not reliable enough to use as a measure of wellness or correct dosage of hormones.

Also note that when you had a thyroid it produced roughly 20% of your body's supply of T3. The other 80% is produced by various body tissues converting T4 to T3. Once your thyroid is gone doctors believe that the conversion rate of T4 to T3 will increase and make up the deficit in T3. But they rarely test T3 to actually check whether your body has increased conversion. Medical beliefs about thyroid disease are more like a religion or mythology than anything else.

thyroiduk.org/further-readi...

Doctors make a complete mess of thyroid treatment because they

a) rely on TSH which for many people, under many different circumstances, is not a reliable indicator of anything.

b) think T3 is unimportant so they rarely test it. They've been taught only TSH is important.

c) don't know many of the symptoms of hypothyroidism because symptoms are considered to be irrelevant in the treatment of thyroid disease.

[Regenallotment]

I see you have amazing advice already, just putting it out there that anxiety is also an undermedicated hypothyroid symptom. Blood testing as they suggest will help you figure that out. I use Monitor My Health £26 for thyroid only and Medichecks £86 for vits and thyroid. Discount THYROIDUK10 🦋

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Regenallotment]

MMH now doing thyroid, vitamins, cholesterol and HBA1C £65 😀

And money off that with code from Thyroid U.K.

[Regenallotment in reply to SlowDragon]

oh yes! I’d forgotten about that new one, that’s a good deal compared to Medichecks 💚

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Regenallotment]

if you don’t need thyroid antibodies tested

[Regenallotment in reply to SlowDragon]

Did I read that MMH are also doing TSH, FT4 FT3 & antibodies too. I think that’s another new one. 💚

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Regenallotment]

yes …..but only TPO so that’s pretty useless

monitormyhealth.org.uk/our-...