Can you have Hashimotos as well as a poorly functioning Pituitary Gland?

[Noona123]

I have always had a low TSH in comparison to my T4 and T3 levels. Is it possible to have a slightly malfunctioning Pituitary gland as well as Hashimotos? I have hit my head a few times over the last few years!

[tattybogle]

yes it's possible .. (the conditions are not mutually exclusive . and looking at your previous posts shows your TSH has always been a bit lower than you'd expect given how low your fT4 / fT3 were before diagnosis).

but it's quite tricky to prove . especially once you've already started Levo .

I don't know much about how they go about detecting / diagnosing pituitary issues , but hopefully somebody else does . my reply will move your question back up the list so more people will see it

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Most medics think it too rare to consider

Whereas it’s just rarely diagnosed

Very common with Hashimoto’s to have sluggish/poor response from TSH

Levels hop around so much TSH gives up

[SlowDragon Administrator]

previous post

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu....

Was levothyroxine increased to 100mcg

Which brand of levothyroxine is this

Get bloods retested 6-12 weeks after increasing levothyroxine

What vitamin supplements are you currently taking

[Noona123 in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi SlowDragon,

Thanks to this forum I got my dose increased to 100mcg but had to fight for it! I showed GP NICE guidelines for weight/dosage ratio and argued 75mcg was too low for me. I was having quite severe symptoms in my joints/ muscles and ongoing fatigue. I also had to point out that my T3 and T4 were still very low in range, but I don' think he really understood the relevance of that!

GP increased dose but also referred me to a Rhumatologist (fast track!) as he thought I could have Rheumatoid arthritis or Polymyalga Rhumatica. Rhumatologist (2 weeks after GP appoint) said he thought it was (probably) my thyroid causing symptoms and to see how the 100mcg dosage went. He also referred me to Physio therapy as my muscles in particular were really painful. Eventually symptoms subsided for a couple of weeks but then returned. I had my 6 week bloods taken after being on 100mcg but TSH only! (I"d asked for T4 and T3).

TSH was 0.17 so GP wanted to decrease my dose but I persuaded him to keep me on 100mcg as I was still having symptoms. (agonising leg pain in particular). I'm going to get a medichecks done I think but I can almost guess that my T4 and T3 will still be quite low in range even though my TSH seems to think levels are okay. Thats why I wondered if my pituitary is a bit hit and miss but it's probably as you say , levels are going up and down. My TPO antibodies were 600 at diagnosis.

I've been given 3 different makes (Aristo, Teva and ??) but don't feel they are particularly different. I've also gone gluten free. I'm beginning to wonder whether GP might be right and there's something else going on. I've increased dose by myself to 125mcg (weight 70kg) to see if my pains subside. I've also had lots of other blood tests eg for Rhu Arthritis but they came back negative.

Vits should all be optimal by now as have been taking regularly ( Vit D etc) One weird thing was that my B12 had gone down from nearly 500 to 340 so I've also started B12 spray. Bit baffled by it all to be honest as I'm 57 and feel 87 at the moment.

[Nomad12 in reply to Noona123]

Read your post and our issues sound so similar; my problem is also joint/muscle pain, have also had all the tests done and everything is negative. Are you feeling any better? I think I saw that your sourced T3, did that help? Agree with the feeling like 87!!!

[Lotika]

I have a non-functioning pituitary adenoma (benign tumour) and Hashimotos. I’m under the care of an NHS endo for both and they consider them unconnected. I had a scan for an eye problem which uncovered the adenoma and the same specialists discovered the hashis at an annual appointment, given they test my TDH, as adenomas can interfere. But in my case, they think it is coincidental.

[Noona123 in reply to Lotika]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Have also read your profile - quite a journey you've had indeed, relayed in a most engaging way! Interesting they thought the benign tumour and hashismotos were co-incidental.