Hello, first-time poster here, and worried, so please be gentle...! π
I'm a woman approaching 50 π¬ and have had so many crappy - but not serious - things happening. Aches, pains, fatigue, lethargy, brain fog, insomnia, blah blah blah. All part of the aging process, I figured. Not great, and definitely impacting on quality of life, but not really enough to go the doctor with.
Anxiety hit hard last year - I actually thought I was having a heart attack - and have had a significant amount of time off work as a result. Saw an occupational therapist last month, and she said to consider perimenopause. When I looked into that, yes I have a lot of the lesser known symptoms - but not the obvious ones like changes in my cycle, hot flushes etc. But none-the-less, and despite reluctance from my doctor's surgery (they're not great), I have had a batch of blood tests done, and it's thrown some stuff up.
One of the things it showed was elevated cholesterol, which surprised me - we have a pretty good diet, I'm reasonably active (I walk 2 miles a day at speed doing the school run), I don't smoke, I like a drink but I'm hardly out partying every weekend (I wish!).
I started looking into it, and found that hypothyroidism can cause 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) to rise, and my result for that was 3 - it should be below 3. In response to that result, I've been sent a text from the GP with a link to follow (great chatting to you, doctor, thanks) to tweak the diet, and that was it. But the more I looked into hypothyroidism (mostly looking at all the symptoms on this website), the more I realised I have probably 90% of them.. But my TSH level was normal, so there's no way my GP is going to agree to me having any other thyroid tests, I would think.
In terms of the rest of the menopause-y stuff, I have reduced levels of testosterone (and an appointment to discuss that), but the other obvious hormones are all still normal - hence why I'm essentially asymptomatic as far as menopause is concerned, I guess. Yet to have the chat with the nurse, mind you.
So my questions:
1. Is anyone aware of anything else that could cause these symptoms that look so much like hypothyroidism without being hypothyroidism?
2. I'm wondering about some kind of mineral deficiency..? I showed 'significantly low serum folate' and have been prescribed folic acid, but I figure if I'm low in that, I'm probably low in other minerals. Does anyone know if a mineral deficiency can either cause hypothyroidism, or look like it?
3. I know there are some private companies listed on this website for private tests, anyone got any recommendations? I probably need to get everything looked at, nutrients and everything.
Thanks so much for any help. I don't know if I'm coming or going, I'm worrying about having a stroke or a heart attack, and want to get to the bottom of what's causing all this STUFF rather than just be fobbed off with folic acid and a dietary revision, with a check up in a year's time (if I'm still here!) π