Any thoughts?
This statement is obviously based on ignorance and I need to find that rabbit hole 😅
I am currently at the bottom of the T4 range but looking to up that after a blood test on Monday, is that likely to nudge things up a bit?🤞
Previous happy place T4 55% T3 100%
👏 interesting to read 😊 What do you make of it? I notice the comment suggests taking DHEA, and may impact hormones… are you on HRT? Are you pursuing this via NHS now or private? So many questions 😬 sorry I have no answers! Just cheering you on with my vegetable Pom poms 🤣 give me an E, give me a Y 👏🥑👏🥒👏🌽👏🥕👏
🤗Thanks, you daftty... no idea really about the results but your second veg looks well dodgy!! You will have to do descriptive text for tattybogle
Yes, I'm smothered in HRT... no idea about DHEA 😬 another day another rabbit hole
Just rather pleased that it isn't miles out.... little wins eh 💃
Might double up my pure adrenal maybe add a pm dose to see what that does? Need to do some studying first
Hi Eeyore
So you did the test whilst on adrenal support?
I'd been taking 1 Pure Encapsulations Adrenal in the morning since the beginning of November, I stopped for a week before doing the test, rightly or wrongly?
I was feeling the benefit but didn't want to overdo them without knowing where my cortisol levels were actually at, as I had been concerned if you supplement too much it can have a negative effect on your adrenals 😳 going to add in a pm dose for a month and review
Before taking these I would have put myself in the middle band of Radd's diagram below
do you mind me asking where you got the the rest from? How long it take to find back?
This was a Regenerus adrenals test and the results came back within 10 days
Eeyore100,
Optimising thyroid and O & P hormones will help raise cortisol and DHEA, and great you are taking adrenal support.
I like this image showing all stages of fatigue through to failure.
Brilliant, thanks Radd, coffee 🤢 but biscuits oh my yes! Hadn't been able to eat them before adding the T3 so thought I was scratching that itch.... They have been my go to, really interesting seeing the cortisol graph and how it ties in with the biscuit pick me ups
I was certainly in the middle grey area before adding in the glandular!
That gives me the confidence to up my adrenal support and take one after lunch as well, it looks like the right move, certainly whilst waiting for the increase in T4 to kick in and then review.... I shall measure my progress via the biscuit tin 😏
I can still only tolerate boring digestives which I would never have touched before!
I find this all fascinating 🧐. But I just don’t understand how this all works. I’m being a bit thick I know but for me I’ve always wondered it my adrenals are “broken” from 23yrs of chronic stress (PTSD). Is it possible that adrenal fatigue has meant I had terrible menopause symptoms and/or is this the cause of my thyroid problems? Could fixing my adrenals allow my thyroid to work properly? I’m confused. Could someone give me a simple explanation please 🙏
humanbean is likely your best guide, I’m not sure it’ll fix your thyroid, more likely optimising your thyroid health with help your adrenals recover as one helps the other and your hypothyroidism caused the demise of your adrenals along with your PTSD…. I need to go study all this too
Exhausted adrenals will certainly worsen menopause as adrenals have to pick up the slack there too!
Thankyou TiggerMe . So it’s a bit of a catch 22. Get adrenal/O&P/thyroid axis balanced? 🤷♀️
Where do you place yourself on Radd's chart?
Balancing all the hormones is certainly the goal 🥅
I'm going to practise running around with my shirt over my head and sliding on my knees ready for the day I hit the back of the net 😆🙃
oh, without a doubt in the grey🤷♀️. But those symptoms could be my thyroid? But Levo isn’t doing the trick
How are you getting on with the Utrogestan? So your estrogen and testosterone levels are ok? Have you checked your cortisol levels?
So many cross overs with them all symptoms wise 🤯 I've spent the last few years gradually adding all these things back in and things are on the up.
Have you managed to get your T3/T4 levels up, you still had a little more head room for a rise in T4?
Utrogestan was a disaster it just made me very anxious! Stopped that after 2 months. On 125 Levo now bloods booked for next week. Estrogen only gel. Testosterone high 18 months ago (over range).
Obvs with this DVT things are a bit up in the air at the moment.
Strangely, blood thinners increase blood pressure ( I have very low blood pressure). 🤷♀️which can cause blood clots .
Also Vit D is an anticoagulant but Vit K is a coagulant. I’ve been using VitD/K2 spray. 🤷♀️
Chronic long term stress can also cause blood clots.
This is all so exhausting 😩not knowing which way is right.
Oh blimey!... It is like one of those awful jigsaws that just sky or water isn't it ☹️
Funny you mention BP I just posted up mine for scrutiny... low ties in with the low cortisol
but if I have low BP wouldn’t I have low cortisol? I thought stress is HIGH cortisol 🤦♀️
Stress raises cortisol levels, but presumably if your adrenals aren’t playing any more that doesn’t happen so you end up low???
ah ! I had a blood cortisol level taken I think about a year ago, cortisol was high 🤷♀️. It was morning blood. So therefore I can assume my adrenals are working 🤔
mine was ok in the morning and then dropped off… that’s why they suggest 4 timed saliva tests, blood cortisol is measured including bound cortisol (unavailable) so could be high and low 😳
😳🙈
I've certainly found the adrenal glandular helps
I’m a bit to nervous to take anything. Cortex or glandular. Which for adrenal fatigue?
I’m guessing until I do the cortisol test I won’t know which to try?
How does stress affect progesterone and cortisol levels?
Chronic stress is a big contributor to both progesterone and cortisol levels in the body. When the body is under stress for extended periods, it works to produce higher levels of cortisol to counteract the stress effects. Progesterone is a precursor to cortisol.
Pick the bones out of that statement?
🤣I thought cortisol IS stress 🤷♀️
Yeah you’d want to do a cortisol test first
All sorts of things can cause problems with cortisol. Bear in mind that high levels and low levels both make people feel unwell and deciding based just on symptom lists whether you have one or the other is not a good idea because there is a lot of overlap in symptoms.
(I got it wrong when I was still a newbie to thyroid matters, about 10 or 12 years ago, although I did find out I was wrong very quickly, thank goodness. I thought my levels of cortisol were low, when they were actually very high.)
You might find these links of interest :
paulrobinsonthyroid.com/sym...
paulrobinsonthyroid.com/hig...
paulrobinsonthyroid.com/cat...
Doctors often assume that being "stressed" is "only" a mental illness, and isn't caused by physical problems as well. Then they prescribe anti-depressants. Personally, I (not a doctor) think that is far too restrictive. Other things that can cause stress are :
1) Having thyroid disease and being untreated, under-treated, or improperly treated.
2) Having low nutrients - if the body doesn't work well for any reason it will cause stress.
3) Chronic pain.
4) Having any illness which is dismissed, disbelieved, untreated, or poorly treated.
5) Grieving.
6) Losing one's job.
7) Over-eating or under-eating.
8) Over-exercising or under-exercising.
I am not suggesting the above list is complete.
Unfortunately for patients doctors often treat the above list as a reason for people to be put on anti-depressants, and that is their job done. When I finally found out I could test and treat my own low iron and ferritin, didn't need prescriptions, and could keep going until I got my levels to optimal I found that my life-long anxiety vanished and my depression reduced tremendously. Anti-depressants don't raise iron and never worked for me. During the 90s and early 2000s my doctor put me on four different SSRIs that never did a thing for me, but iron worked.
Regarding menopause and cortisol, I had gone through an early surgical menopause years before I started delving into the thyroid, nutrients and cortisol so I never learned anything about sex hormones, sorry.
If you want to know what info you can get from a saliva cortisol test I wrote lots of replies a couple of years ago to a member of the forum covering just about everything I could think of at the time :
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
Thankyou humanbean . Really good info (as always)👍. I read all the posts about saliva test results to try an understand, but it still confuses me. I will read your link now.🙏
High Cortisol results 
Cortisol saliva results
Cortisol Results
Cortisol test results 
T3 too high - help with results please?
