Hello everyone,
I'm a 39 yrs old female.
Some months ago I started my elimination process.
I haven't been feeling well for the last 6.5 years, in and out of jobs and life in general.
I was doing great on 3 gr of Armour for 2 years up until mid 2017 and then crashed. Trying to resolve the mystery of what happened.
Many different meds, combos later, here I am.
Last year was not a bad year, I lowered my Armour, added some T3, even started pole dancing and going out etc. And again, crashed in July. The crash almost always looks the same: low sodium, dehydration, dizziness, anxiety, recently breathlessness tagged along.
I have noticed my iron going down, my estrogen plummeting, glucose going up - had enough!
This is what I have done:
1. Tried all meds under the sun, apart from T3 only (and this includes 2 different NDTs).
2. Had iron infusion in November in hope my lowish in range ferritin is contributing. Nope, nothing, 3 months later still the same with a beautiful ferritin and iron levels..
3. Had estrogen/progesterone patch on...lasted a week. My thyroid labs went down over that week (tested), prog made me dopey and almost depressed (well known side effect, FYI, I'm not even deficient in prog, but apparently you shouldn't take estrogen without it if you have an uterus).
4. Had a trial of hydrocortisone (my saliva cortisol always comes back low, but my blood in range or high). Only 3 days, definitely not enough to know anything and doses were too high at 25mg, big mistake! I felt kinda dopey too and calm though at times.
5. I have tested rt3 (the test where I am only costs me 20 euro, so I said sure, why not). I'm hovering under midrange to low in range. Not surprised at that now since my T4 in Armour is only about 80-85 mcg.
6. All my vits/minerals are optimal, I worked so hard to get these high in ranges, vit D, B12, folate, iron, magnesium,
Right now I'm going on less Armour more Thybon T3. Its not smooth, but expected, since T3 in Thybon is not the same as in Armour. Armour is definitely more longlasting. It is amazing for that reason.
I'm getting closer to the truth. This weekend I'm doing a salivary cortisol test to check what impact increasing T3 and decreasing Armour had.
There are two possible scenarios:
1. I crashed in 2017 and I can't get better, because I can't have much T4 in my body, regardless of rt3 (Paul R says some people can't tolerate even smallest amount of T4 - looking at you greygoose and DippyDame 😀). Potentially I might do okay then with smaller amount of NDT and higher T3.
2. I have low cortisol and no way in hell I can tolerate anything because of it). Back in 2017 I moved countries, broke up with my ex, started a new demanding job, loads of stress. The jury is still out on this.
One more thing I need to treat, but right now holding off until everything else is checked - SIBO.
I am not really looking for any advice, I'm posting it in case anyone is in a similar boat and struggling.
We will get there, it's science, but it is damn hard to experiment on yourself x
Ps. I have two endos with two different opinions, which sort of both hinders and helps the process. One wants me on T3 only or majority T3 and potentially hydro, the other one on Armour only and hydro, and low dose transdermal testosterone. Hydro to be taken for about 2-3 months and tapered.
Right this moment I'm on 80 mcg T4 and 35 mcg T3 (between Armour and Thybon, so 2.125 grains of Armour and 15 mcg Thybon).