If you have taken thyroid hormone replacement for some time and your levels are pretty much settled please can you share your experiences with seasonal changes?
Do you find you need to reduce/increase your doses seasonally?
What signs apart from blood test results indicate this if so?
honestly i gave up expecting to feel ok in the winter years ago... now i just expect to hibernate as much as possible and get through it, and come out to play again around end of Feb /early march regular as clockwork... decided it's good enough for bears , so that works for me .
i have often experimented with changing dose up a bit in winter and down again in spring ... result are.... erm 'inconclusive' .. usually 'life gets in the way' as it so often does.
i recently planned a very careful study of myself for 3 mths on a very slightly lower dose from about march .... and of course around wk 7 everyone in the house got covid or something similar which left us all feeling godawful for a full 2 months , then i got a tooth abscess and had to have some antibiotics .... completely ruined my carefully planned experiment...am finally ready to test my blood now . Feeling extremely hypo.
Thanks for sharing sorry to hear you have been through it. It’s reassuring to hear there is a pattern for you too.
Interested to hear how your testing goes 🌱
I'll bet you 50p its the opposite of what i'm expecting, and illogical .
21 yrs of playing this thyroid game , and so far, "contradictory and illogical" is the only predictable thing about it.
This is very relatable, just when I think I’ve cracked it, I’m never quite sure how the illusive good days were achieved. Work in constant progress is how I’d describe this 3 years on 🙈(monkey covering eyes) 🌱
Isn't March a little early to start reducing? It's usually when the weather gets hotter that people start thinking about reducing their dose - if they need to. It rarely gets warm in March, let alone hot!
Personally, I never felt the need for a seasonal change of dose until last year, when I started to to feel over-medicated - trembling hands, etc - in around... whenever it started to get hot. This year I don't think I'm going to feel that way because in the middle of June it's still b****y freezing, here!
yes it would be , but on this occasion i wasn't reducing for seasonal reasons i was dealing with my over the top T4 ... just happened to be in march, lol bloody freezing here too..
Ah yes. The hand tremble is a good indicator, thanks for this, does it have to be sustained? I can get a particular day that is shakey (especially with the sheet of paper trick) and then fine again days after 🤨
I’ve realised I last tested beginning of March , so it won’t hurt to test again and see although bloods seem to lag behind symptoms for me. I’d like to head off anny over replacement before it happens if possible. Last summers roller coaster wasn’t fun. 🌱
I don't know if it has to be sustained. I don't wait to find out. 
I shall learn from this! I kind of like the early feeling… looser waistband, cognition and energy boost, if I could just capture the exact point and maintain that I’d be onto a winner 🌱
Oh, well, I don't get all that! Just the shaky hands.
Well as anyone who reads anything I write, will know, I am far from optimally medicated it would seem. This ‘summer’ I am still using my electric blanket, often and high (naughty) and still wearing my woollen thermal underwear. Even now (summer) if I do get ‘distracted’, usually studying thyroid info, I too late realise I have let myself get cold to the core and then I am even more useless. I then spend the rest of my day trying to get warm and staying that way.
At least I don’t have to worry about dropping my meds.
I tend to reduce my dose at the beginning of May and test 6 weekly. I know when it’s time because I become too warm at night and my hands tremble especially in the morning. I’ve just tested again and I’m still a little high on T4 but feel less over medicated.
Aha! This is helpful thanks. 🙏
This is helpful to me too . When do you find as a general.rile you increase again ? Aug- ish ?
Usually towards the end of September, and I keep testing 6 weekly until it stabilises and adjust accordingly
..this is very interesting and reassuring to me ...I'm not alone . Who do you test with ( or do I recall you are in canada?,)...budget implications of multiple testing here in UK ....NHS won't do it and Privates cist around £60I know it's very individual but what levels ( numbers are your targets? )
I'm one of those people with permanently supressed tsh due to an earlier bout of very very high overactive causing the Pituayory to permanently downregulate the tsh .
So I have to look at t4 and T3
Any experience would be well received .
I’ll let you know . I’m off to Corfu. If I get agitated and too hot 🥵 it could be a sign I’m over medicated. At the moment I’m stable but still don’t have any extra boost in the tank ( if that makes sense). I haven’t tested for a while but will when I get back
Thanks, have a great time away 🤗
I’ll be interested to hear how it goes
🌱
Yep.really energy issues
This is something that interests me ...maybe need more in winter for Seasonal Affective Disorder .On same subject I'd like to know about any research on T3 or 4 and depression/ anxiety . No doubt already discussed here b4 but sometimes I'm desperate as I'm sure many others are.
Definitely T3 and mental health, my understanding is some members see a psychiatrist to get their T3.
My anxiety and depression have resolved with optimal dosing and nutrition (vits etc) but the initial push to see the GP took 12 weeks of inward looking CBT that gave me the strength to make an appointment. When unmedicated and symptomatic we often don’t ‘see’ what’s wrong or what we need.
🌱
Yep I've git my t3 from.phych, but began to feel.more anx on it so with held it for hols this week.
Its almost unbelievable that a psychiatrist can work this out when not even many endocrinologists can! Or maybe psychiatrists are more desperate to find treatments for the overwhelming number of patients with mental health issues. Just been reading a pretty good piece (found through the Canadian patients thyroid site) contributed to/led by a UK endocrinologist which is specifically aimed at cardiologists and I can assure you from experience with cardiologists, they seem to know nothing about the heart/thyroid connection. GPs the same, so I can understand why this paper was written 2018 but it will likely be another 30 years at least before that manages to affect treatment!
It seems that good endocrinologists are hiding their lights under bushels, such is the politicking in endocrinology and other specialisms.
Winter is usually harder for me with more symptoms. Having said that, I also have to look at how I spend my energy in summer. With our long winters in Canada I often want to do EVERYTHING in spring and maybe summer (when not too hot) and tend to overdo it. Then my body tells me, "Hey, crazy lady, your battery is now beyond empty and I'll pin you down for the next two days." Throughout the year I have to listen to my body or deal with the consequences, but winter is more difficult.
Exactly this!! Busy day in the garden followed by thinking I was coming down with Covid for 24 hours 😞 trembly fingers etc etc
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