Mine has mostly flatlined since starting Levothyroxine, although not immediately. Will it come back? If so, how long will it take?
FYI Diagnosed Hypothyroidism, Hashimoto and still optimising dose. Vitamins all but Ferritin needs improving.
With you in spirit and solidarity.
HSD
Oh oh! I can only conclude no one has a libido left, or are we all being a little tight over the lip?.
Yes there are some issues even here we do not necessarily want to tread. For my part I know on the odd occasion I feel better, ALL THINGS FEEL BETTER.
The topic gets mentioned frequently! It's a well known issue healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
Thank you.
Do you think it could be related to (peri)menopause? My libido is now non-existent despite HRT - I’m now waiting for appointment with menopause specialist to see about adding testosterone
I am afraidI have no very little knowledge on all things menopause. Also, I didn’t even know that there are such people as menopause specialists.
What I do know, it’s blooming horrible to not have a libido.
No libido here. Too tired all the time
Bless. I’m sorry you are experiencing this and hope it improves. Being tired all the time is certainly not going to help.
Thank you for sharing.
My marriage went to the pot over this. LAL! (Lost all libido).
Oh dear! I am so sorry this happened to you. Life really does s@ck without one for sure.
Tagging radd and TiggerMe for you, hope they’ll be able to give you more info.
I would suggest getting your sex hormones tested to see where you are with them 🤗 need to get the timing right if still cycling as going to be going up and down like a fiddlers elbow, need to balance them up with everything else
Thanks for this. It has been something that’s in my mind.
HSD,
Sadly a low libido is a symptom of low thyroid hormones, as long term un/misdiagnosis eventually compromises adrenal and ovarian hormones.
I agree with Eeyore regarding having sex hormones looked at. I don’t know where you are at with optimising thyroid meds because it’s early days but optimising iron and nutrients will encourage meds to work better and hopefully libido to return. Does your doctor know you are ttc as you may very well require a Levo dose raise?
You are recently diagnosed with Hashimotos so it’s not just about replacing the missing thyroid hormones but managing the autoimmune side also. Your bio says you recently miscarried and I would recommend reading ‘Your Healthy Pregnancy With Thyroid Disease" by Dana Trentini and Mary Shomon.
This book explains the conditions required that best allow conception. Also the huge transformations that take place during pregnancy and the intricate connections with the immune system. There is thought that thyroid antibodies accompanying chronic inflammation can induce miscarriage and studies show thyroid antibodies being found in babies born to Hashi mums.
The book also explains how to reduce chronic inflammation (thyroid antibodies) and things like how mismanaged hypothyroidisms tendency to encourage an exaggerated insulin response puts hypos at higher risk of gestational diabetes.
Also looking at sites such as hypothyroidmom … hypothyroidmom.com/hypothyr... and Isabella Wentz who had troubles conceiving/retaining pregnancies that she managed to overcome.
I’ve expanded on your post question because one thing leads to the other 😁
No, thank you. It’s most appreciated.
As always, through the considered advise of others and through them sharing their experiences there’s lots for me to go on.
TTC is on hold until Levothyroxine and vitamins optimised, and ultimately some semblance of good or functional at least wellbeing.
And, frankly, I’ll want my libido back first! The worry is it is the some sort of side effect from the treatment rather than than the disease.
Thanks Eeyore, I was tagging you in the hope that you could help HealthStarDust 😊
And, thank you too.
I'm still working on this. After levo plus supplementing with B12 and ferritin, I do feel much better, and it shows. Sex is easier overall: not just getting in the mood but also lubrication and sufficient energy levels. There are still a lot of ups and downs.
Thank you for sharing. It sure is neglected part of treatment it would seem. I am glad it gets better.
I'd consider getting your female hormones tested. My libido has been slowly dying a death since my eldest was born 8 years ago. It was always put down to being tired with small children. Then I was diagnosed as hypo. Libido carried on nosediving. Turns out I'm in perimenopause at 36 and waiting to start HRT.
The hormonal system is just one big system - introducing levo, to my mind, is bound to upset the apple cart and impact all other hormones.
I don't believe it is a side-effect of the levo but an impact.
Best of luck - it's miserable.
An impact and what you describe is definitely one way of thinking of it.
I think for now, I have to give the treatment a chance before considering if something else is so wrong that it needs addressing. There have already been signs it’s getting better, just as others have mentioned theirs improved. I would of course want mine to return the same as prediagnosis a mere few months ago.
Thank you for you sharing and I hope things work out for you.
Just want to say thank you to everyone for sharing their insights and experiences.
I am hoping my libido is on the way up again, even if ever so very painfully slowly, and feeling so tired all the time is not exactly a recipe for a decent libido.
🤞🏽 once treatment is optimised and I hope I only need levothyroxine, things will improve. If not, then I have plenty to go on from everyone’s responses.
How are you getting on now HSD? I just searched this because on a dose increase my libidio is very noticibly back all of a sudden - this seems to happen on each increase and then disappears, so I'm optimistic that it will come back completely once my dose is optimised
Currently, TSH became suppressed, with my FT4 and FT3 over range.
At the time of writing, as now, it seems there is a level too high for me that flat lines mine libido. So, no libido for 5-7 months now, followed by vaginal dryness, as well as funky periods. It seems higher thyroid levels seem to put me into some sort of perimenopausal state. Either that, or I’m suddenly just perimenopausal. However, I feel it’s too much of a coincidence and as I’ve had levels too high several times, it’s pretty concrete that this happens to me each time. This is the longest it is taking to come back so I suspect my levels are still too high for my body, or my body doesn’t like a suppressed TSH.
I hope that helps. It’s an awful symptom.
Sorry to hear this! I see that they started you on what was probably nearly a full replacement dose - for subclinical hypothyrodism this is just too much too fast in my experience (I was hypo not hashis and not subclinical but also not off the charts hypo - 100mcg made me feel mental within 2 weeks). I did what it sounds like you are doing, came off levo completely, went back to zombieville and then a few months later started on 25mcg for 12 weeks, 50mcg for 8 weeks, 75mcg for 9 weeks and am now back on 100mcg and hoping that this is the one (or close to it) for me - I've not felt overmedicated once this time around, whereas before I tried to decrease the dose and stick with it but I think the shock to my pitutary had probably been done. Wodkhart brand 25mcg tablets the whole way - now my prescription package is enormous! But seems to be working well so far...
25mcg for 12 weeks, 50mcg for 8 weeks, 75mcg for 9 weeks and am now back on 100mcg
This is similar to what I did in that I came off the full replacement dose and titrated back up slowly to 100mcg. However, doing that made my levels too high at 100mcg again. Attempts to lower the dose somehow ended up with my levels even higher, so I made the decision to come off it altogether. Forum theory is that it is a Hashi Swing, health care workers accept it’s a bit of a mystery but possibly TRABs at play (switching between blocking and stimulating). I tried all the tablet brands and one liquid with my GPs support. They were not easily compatible due to different doses. For now, I’m keeping an eye on things before making any more decisions on treatment.
FYI the full replacement dose was due to pregnancy.
I’m glad things are going well for you. Hang on to that libido! I’m devising a non pharmaceutical plan to bring mine back. Sex itself is healer. Don’t avoid it. It makes the lack of libido worse. That’s my main advise.
P.S. I think you are right. For some of us our pituitary simply doesn’t get on well with hormone replacement.
Yeh my TSH is all over the place. We will see how this dose goes… Have you tried maca root at all? I found that very er stimulating shall we say. Might be worth a go
No. At this point in time I don’t wish to try that but may consider it in the future. Stimulating sounds excellent.
I find that being overmedicated can flatline libido for sure...did you feel better on the way there, meaning going from low to high level of thyroid hormones?
Some ways, some ways no. Overall, no.
I needs these levels to come down quicker for my libido to return. I think as this time my levels were higher and TSH suppressed for longer, it’s taking time to bounce back.
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