Exhaustion may not be thyroid related!

[Forestgarden]

Hi all, just wanted to share my recent experience which came as a complete shock/surprise. So, usual story, feeling exhausted, needing to nap all the time, barely able to function. This feeling has been even worse since new year, barely able to get out of bed. Now, I knew I was a poor converter and needed to add some t3, so beginning of Feb this is what I did. I briefly perked up, but within days was back to same as before. Could not understand it. The t3 was supposed to solve all my problems! Meanwhile, my nhs GP called me in for my annual chronic disease mot with the nurse.... bloods, blood pressure, weight, urine sample. (I went reluctantly, expecting the usual argument about reducing my levo when tsh result came back). Anyway, nurse tested my urine and said, "I think you have a UTI, you must be having symptoms", I told her I had zero symptoms, but she said she'd send it off to the lab anyway. Sure enough, came back positive, and I had a phone call telling me a prescription for antibiotics was waiting for me. So, took the antibiotics (awful) for 3 days as directed, and by the end of day 2 felt marvellous! I could not believe how much more energy I had. And that has continued, and I feel like I'm back on track to just needing to tweak my thyroid meds a bit. Now, I'm not suggesting AT ALL that extreme exhaustion is not due to thyroid. Of course it is if meds and diet aren't where they need to be. But what surprised me is that (a) I hadn't even considered an alternative explanation, and (b) I could have a UTI with zero symptoms, and (c) taking an antibiotic could cause such a dramatic improvement. I just wanted to post this to remind us all to keep an open mind, especially if we've been happily stable on thyroid meds for a while, and then suddenly we're not. It might not actually be thyroid.... 🙂

[DippyDame]

Very good advice Forestgarden

I've had the same experience, thought my T3 dose was wrong, tweaked it and felt even worse.

Turned out UTI was the problem, not my T3 dose!

I've been on high dose T3-only for a number of years, to treat a form of rareThyroid Hormone Resistance

I have now been diagnosed as having ChronicUTI and this flares up now on an almost monthly basis....as the bladder walls shed and replace cells (including any embedded, troublesome infected cells) in the bladder lining. This seems to be when they can be detected in urine tests....the level of visible infection eg cloudy urine and dead cells... seem to vary throughout the day sometimes making detection difficult.

I have been on long term prophylactic antibiotics without much success....regular flare still occurred.

I don't always have the usual symptoms either....I just feel floored and with what I now know is bladder pain

I've also had regular treatment doses of different antibiotics for up to 7 days with short lived success

Wrongly altering my T3 dose created other symptoms and it took time to return to my therapeutic dose.

UTIs can be a symptom of hypothyroidism so being quickly and correctly medicated is very important.

My thyroid condition was wrongly diagnosed and treated for decades...long story in my bio... and I'm now sure CUTI is one of the consequences.

Our late, great diogenes once told me that some (long term) symptoms/damage from wrongly/ undertreated cellular hypothyroidism cannot be resolved...my CUTI seems to be an example.

Long rant ...in the hope we might help others in the situation we found ourselves in.

"It might not actually be thyroid" ... I absolutely agree!

I hope you now stay UTI free

Take good care

[Forestgarden in reply to DippyDame]

Wow, that's really interesting. UTI has never been on my radar as a possibility. Had no idea there was a link. I will now be monitoring myself regularly. Yes, hopefully this might help others xx

[DippyDame in reply to Forestgarden]

thyroiduk.org/signs-and-sym...

UTI included in this symptoms list

[Forestgarden in reply to DippyDame]

So it is! Its been a while since I looked at this list, but as I had no symptoms I probably would never have considered it as a possibility anyway

[RedApple Administrator]

' taking an antibiotic could cause such a dramatic improvement.'

Out of interest, which antibiotics were you prescribed, and for how many days?

[Forestgarden in reply to RedApple]

The antibiotic was trimethoprim, twice daily for 3 days. The side effects were awful, almost felt like flu, without the fever for the first two days, but then fatigue just disappeared and I felt fine.

[RedApple Administrator]

In case it's interest:

Millions of women are suffering who don’t have to’: why it’s time to end the misery of UTIs theguardian.com/society/202...

[catrich in reply to RedApple]

Yes - any woman who is around menopausal age or has low levels of oestrogen for whatever reason and suffers from chronic UTI would do well to find out about urogenital atrophy. It's one of those incredibly-common-but-we-didn't-even know-it-has-a-name conditions. And wouldn't you know, many GPs fail to recognise the symptoms...so women continue to suffer.A free downloadable PDF is at this link: karger.com/books/book/5982/....

(My gynaecologist put me on antibiotic pessaries for 10 days at a time for my mild but chronic infection. Never worked. Vaginal oestrogen worked for me almost immediately.)

(DISCLAIMER: I edited this book but do not profit from it. Dr P. B. is at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and is fabulous. She doesnt profit either. We just want the information out there!)

[mrskiki]

It sounds like you were diagnosed almost by chance- your surgery just happens to annually do the test you needed …. makes you think. (As mine has never tested me for uti)

I did buy some test strips online once after reading up on UTIs after I left hospital and realised what being discharged into GPs care meant. I didn’t have uti symptoms but it seemed a good idea to understand how to test after catheterised for longer than necessary. Since then thyroid and vitamin tests have long taken over, so thanks for the reminder!

[Bertwills]

I saw rest strips for sale in Waitrose yesterday. After your warning it may well be a good idea for us all to routinely check. Thanks for your useful post

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Bertwills]

A quick 'google' suggests there are UTI test kits available online too. Here's one example, but there are others. onlinedoctor.superdrug.com/... No idea if this would be any more useful than those you can buy in a supermarket. 😊

[Catseyes235]

that was really interesting. There is a temptation to think all other symptoms are thyroid related but good to be reminded there are other causes to be checked out too!