When I had my first baby I experienced what I thought at the time was postnatal depression, since then I found I would have times of feeling restless, anxious, unable to sleep, increase sweating and raving thoughts then times of feeling that exhausted I couldn’t get out of bed. During covid I had a lot of stress and my GP recommended I saw a psychiatrist - the nhs wait was over a year so I paid privately and she diagnosed me (over zoom) with a condition called cyclothymia which is mood disorder, like a mild form of bipolar.
Jan 2022 I fell pregnant with my second child and due to my diagnosis I was immediately put under the peri mental health team. I had a lot of complications during pregnancy and was very relieved to give birth to a health baby girl in September 2022. After the birth I went through a stage of being unable to sleep, I went 4 days and night straight with no sleep, I was having heart palpitations, anxiety and I would sweat so much I was having to change the bed in the night. I spoke to the perimental health and had a visit from a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with mania associated with type 2 bipolar and recommended anti- psychotic medication and sleeping tablets.
Luckily before I started the work up for the anti-psychotics my mum noticed my neck was swollen and o saw my Gp she ran some blood tests and I found out I had an overactive thyroid
TSH - 0.008mU/L (0.570’- 3.6)
Free T4 - 28.4pmol/L (7.9 -14)
TPO - 450 (0 - 9)
I saw a consultant privately and he prescribed me carbinazole which I never took as I’d felt a ‘shift’ in my body and my resting heart rate had decreased considerably, but really interesting he told me that he’s sure I don’t have bipolar and he’s 99% sure that my symptoms are due to autoimmune Hashimotos.
In December I started to feel tired and weak so went back to the GP who retested my thyroid and my results were
TSH - 42.060 mU/L (0.570 - 3.6)
Free T4 - 2.4 pmol/L (7.9 - 14)
The GP started me on 125mcg levo and I’ve been on it for 3 weeks now
During my first postpartum period and i between my 2 children my TSH and Free T4 have been within range but I do wonder if my history of cyclothymia could have been a misdiagnosis and it’s been hashimotos all along.
Has anyone else got a similar story?
Thanks
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VB-85
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Hi VB-85, I had nothing as harrowing as you but did have extreme fatigue, disinterest and low level depression after the birth of my first daughter. I had blood tests 6 months after her birth, the results of which only came to light another 7 months later as they’d been incorrectly filed as normal. I’d had a TSH of 72 but by the this time I was overactive.
I was told it was post partum thyroiditis and it would all correct it self and I’d never have a problem again. This turned out to be untrue and Hashimoto’s was diagnosed 12 months after my second daughter.
I think you’ve done an amazing job to keep going with two young children when you felt so dreadful. You are a survivor and an amazing Mum.
There are so many knowledgeable people on here who can advise you on how to look after your thyroid health from now on but if you don’t regain your health well on levothyroxine there are alternatives.
I have a similar story VB-85, as I was originally diagnosed as Graves (hyperthyroidism) with symptoms of weight loss, palpitations, increased anxiety, tremor etc. plus TED. My GP also diagnosed ‘health anxiety’ & I saw a psychotherapist for over a year (and resisted repeated requests from my GP to take anti depressants). Joining this forum was a godsend, as member’s encouraged me to test thyroid levels & key vitamins privately and I realised (as members here suspected) that I had Hashimotos and was hypothyroid. Of course, my endocrinologist is adamant that I originally had Graves, which then swung to Hashimotos, but I believe that I had Hashimotos all along, but originally this manifested as a ‘hyper phase’. I also now understand that my massive anxiety was not due to ‘health anxiety’ but was because I was under treated thyroid wise. These symptoms greatly improved when I was optimally medicated with thyroid medication and had optimal ranges of key thyroid vitamins (ferritin, folate. B12 and vit D)
If your GP is unable to complete FT3 tests or key vitamins (eg if TSH is within range, some surgeries may not be able to access FT4 and FT3 tests), you could look to do this privately, as many forum members do, for a better picture of your thyroid health:
Well done your mum for spotting your neck how close you came to a diet of antipsychotics and sleeping pills is scary .
It never ceases to amaze me that thyroid conditions are not ROUTINELY considered and TESTED FOR when a 'mental health' problem appears /or worsens in the year following a pregnancy.
Post Partum Thyroiditis and/ or Autoimmune Hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's / Ord's) are extremely common conditions ..... and Graves is hardly 'rare' .. and it is well known that a pregnancy is frequently the catalyst that kicks them off.
And yet it rarely occurs to GP's to run a thyroid blood test when presented with a new mum with some symptoms that could be hyper / hypo and a 'mental health' problem .
Why on earth is it not part of a routine post natal care ? Why are there not NHS posters of a woman with a swollen neck hanging in the waiting room of the new baby clinic ? .. is it just me, or is this nut's ?
....sorry , ranting again . i just really bugs me.
I went a bit nut's a couple of months after having my 2nd child, i was over energetic/ super human sometimes, and exhausted at others . i was extremely emotionally labile ...shouting at partner, hiding in the woods for 4 hours when he'd organised a surprise birthday party (scared everyone to death as they thought i'd fallen off the cliff or into the river) ... I lost weight to the point that people were commenting, i was just muscles and skin , yet i was eating very well with mars bars on top... I don't think i had a goitre . if i did, i didn't notice .
Eventually went to the doc as everyone round me was concerned about some of my actions and state of mind ... no thyroid blood test done .. counselling appointment made for me .. i didn't go . it didn't feel appropriate or necessary and it would have been very hard to get to from where i lived.
Then followed 4 years of gradually becoming slower and more and more tired / cold / legs like lead /walking through mud / wearing more layers than everyone else all year and struggling though winters until i had no choice but to move to somewhere that was easier to manage than living in yurt at the bottom of a valley . which i had previously managed very easily with my first kid who was 7 by the time of my 2nd pregnancy .
.... and then eventually (after i kept going back to the new GP every month for 6 months and declining the antidepressants) .... somebody finally thought to test my thyroid ... Duh !
TPOab 2499 [0-50]
TSH was over range and rising but unspectacular 5.7 then 6.8 [0.36 - 4.1]
and Total T4 was falling 94 then 91 [65-155] but still in range .
The doc tested my ankle reflex ~ extremely slow return .
My cheeks and the bridge of my nose / eyes were lumpy and waxy looking.
I had put my 'usual' weight back on , plus a little more ,but was not looking over weight , and maybe that is partly why nobody thought '?thyroid' for so long
But i felt really awful given how 'not very bad' the TSH/ T4 levels were.
I was really struggling to just 'function' by that point .
obviously i have no idea what had been happening to my TSH / T4 levels in the intervening 5 years ..i'd love to know.
My mums sister became thyrotoxic ("? graves" as her eyes seemed to have been affected , but don't know for sure) very shortly after her first pregnancy in 1950 and had "a bit of thyroid removed but they took a way a bit too much " and then was on levo for life.
Her mum was committed to an asylum for 5 years about a month after the birth of her 2nd child in 1930, (she was found trying to kill herself with the new baby using the gas oven) they gave her electric shock treatment amongst other things . No diagnosis of thyroid problem , but i must say i have always wondered if it was implicated . She was always stick thin when i knew her.
Thyroid blood tests should be the FIRST thing that is ROUTINELY tested when ' mental health' problems present in a new mum .... not left to chance that someone's mum is on the ball enough to notice a swelling in her daughters neck .. and not everyone gets a swollen neck anyway ... not everyone who is hypothyroid looks overweight.
Why is the medical profession still so blind to the need to consider the thyroid when problems present in the year after a birth ? It's not rocket science .
Here here ... or is it hear hear. Whatever it is I quite agree . So many women suffer thyroid problems after having a baby, it should probably be part of the post natal checks. I didn't tell anyone how bad zI was feeling because I was worried about who would look after the little ones.
I was diagnosed by accident after my second child. To be hot, I think I've always had a bit of an issue, but pregnancy exacerbated it. I agree that not only should thyroid bloods be routinely tested throughout pregnancy (plus they should be done first thing, now we all know about the circadian rhythm), but afterwards too. I'm sure too many of us slip through the loop.
I agree @Mstp - every time I speak to a pregnant woman I always advise her to make sure she finds time to look after herself post partum and get her thyroid checked!
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how close you came to a diet of antipsychotics and sleeping pills is scary . 
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