Is Severe gastro pain often related to/a common symptom of Hyperthyroidism in peoples experience please?

[Hyperthyroiddaughter]

Is very Severe gastro pain often related to/a common symptom of Hyperthyroidism in peoples experience please?Sorry if a silly question! A very reluctant newbie to this cruel thyroid club 😏

[Buddy195 Administrator]

My own experience says ‘yes’. It was actually a gastroenterologist who initially thought I had a thyroid problem. I experienced severe pain from gastritis and lost a significant amount of weight. Following an endoscopy, the gastroenterologist advised me to read up on ‘leaky gut’ and made some suggestions on how to assist healing. I did take omeprazole short term, but did a lot of reading/ investigation of natural methods.

What medication has your daughter been offered re gastric pain?

[Hyperthyroiddaughter in reply to Buddy195]

Hi Buddy195,

Ah ok, Thank you. In an odd way, that’s reassuring. In lots of my research I’ve seen Hyper linked to gastro issues, but when I spoke to a GP recently (not my daughter’s GP) they seemed to doubt a link atall which confused me?!

My daughter is taking Famotidine to reduce stomach acid/Mebeverine (20mins before meals 3 times per day) and has been given Codeine (and electrolite solutions to stop related constipation).

Due to her dramatic weightloss (17kgs since Aug) she’s also on dietician prescribed Protein and fruit ‘Fortisips’ daily to try to increase it.

[PurpleNails Administrator]

Symtoms can be extremely varied between individuals. Gastro issues it known hyperthyroid issued.

Drs really only know the most very obvious & then because they are very common with other issues, they miss testing thyroid, blaming them instead on hormones / anxiety for example.

Autoimmune thyroid conditions can also be associated with gluten issues. A test can rule out gluten allergy. Tests needs to be taken when on gluten diet. Gluten intolerance won’t show. So even if result negative might be worth trialing strictly gluten free diet.

Would you say the weight loss was despite an increasing appatite or due to loss of appetite and less eating?

[Hyperthyroiddaughter in reply to PurpleNails]

Yes, I’m beginning to see how little indepth knowledge GP’s have of lots of conditions tbh!

Re Gluten intolerance; Thank you. I will request that my daughter also has bloods done for that too and look at going gluten free accordingly ( not that I know how to read/interpret any of these blood results/ranges etc that I now keep seeing everyone mention so frequently 🙈 I guess that’s another thing I’m going to have to learn/get used to.

Re appetite; I think her weightloss has been due to a mixture of reduced appetite and also her understandably reducing her food intake because her intense pain episodes usually hit after eating (no matter what foods), sometimes within minutes. She’s lost a quarter of her bodyweight in the last 6months (now just over 7stone and about 5ft 9 so pretty dramatic).

[PurpleNails Administrator in reply to Hyperthyroiddaughter]

Increased appetite is more common with hyper, but as you say with severe gastrointestinal pain will lead to less eating.

Hope the treatments are helping.

You will know more once you have results.

[Hyperthyroiddaughter in reply to PurpleNails]

Thank you so much for your advice 😊

[JuSa44]

Before being diagnosed with a hyperthyroid relapse last year, I had terrible digestive issues and gastritis. My gastroenterologist said this was triggered by the thyroid but the endocrinologist said it was the other way round, and the gastric problems triggered the thyroid. So we are not sure which area caused my health issues, but it certainly seems they are linked in some way.

[Hyperthyroiddaughter in reply to JuSa44]

That’s interesting and Thank you so much for taking time to reply! 😊

[Hyperthyroiddaughter in reply to JuSa44]

Sorry, I forgot to ask if your gastro symptoms (I presume including pain?) have eased/gone now that you’re on thyroid meds?

[JuSa44 in reply to Hyperthyroiddaughter]

Yes absolutely

[JuSa44 in reply to Hyperthyroiddaughter]

Once regulating the thyroid, your daughter will find that all sorts of weird body problems disappear for example, I had a very dry, flaky scalp and allergy type issues on my skin. I didn't associate any of that with my thyroid, but it seems to be linked. The thyroid is so powerful and impacts all of our physiological functions. I also believe that my hyperthyroidism is triggered by changes in my female hormones. I had post partum thyroiditis after the birth of each of my three kids and I reckon my current issues are in some way related to hormone changes from perimenopause.

[Tony-the-tiger]

Before being diagnosed I was being sick quite a lot so thought it was gastro related and sent to a gastro specialist. Looking back I think it could have been the heat sensitivity and a higher heart rate (that is a hyper symptom) that drove some of nausea. Once I was on carbimazole my gastro symptoms went away.

[xNorthernLightsx]

I don’t think it’s always possible to compartmentalise symptoms. Gastro symptoms are often a symptom of anxiety and anxiety can, in turn, be present in hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or in euthyroid people.

It’s not a silly question at all and, yes, thyroid disease is cruel and often unrelenting. I always think it’s important not to relate every symptom to thyroid disease. My husband thinks I’m irritable apparently - what he fails to remember is that I was irritable long before I ever had thyroid isssues. Lol 😉