Hi All
Firstly – I apologise for the long post here but I wanted to give you all the facts. I have been struggling for 7 years to find out why my hair and eyebrows have never recovered despite being on T3 and T4. I have just had a battery of tests done – this is my last chance to find out whats wrong and put things right so I am as close to normal as possible!
Facts:
I am female mid 40s
1) First Hypo symptoms 9 years ago – cold/low body temp with aching joints, constipation and outer 1/3 eyebrow loss
2) Progressed to – total eyebrow loss, lost hair from arms and legs, lost about 1/3 of hair on head, stiff and painful joints, high anxiety, low moods, and exhaustion. GP, endo who all agreed hypo symptoms but normal test results so wouldn’t help.
3) 7 years ago, progressed to signs of adrenal fatigue. Finally got help from private GP and started treatment.
4) I have made great progress and feel 20 times better than I did EXCEPT my hair has never recovered and that really does bother me as I guess it would most people. I know it also means that there is something still not right.
5) I am currently on 125mg of T4 and 40mg of T3 daily plus VIt D, B12 and evening primrose oil
I have now had all the tests I can afford to try and find out what is wrong. As you can see from results below there is a big problem with DHEA and Testosterone (I’m a girl – didn’t even know I had it!?).
My Vitamin D, B12 and Ferritin results are all great and well in range after supplementing so that is a good news.
Can you see anything there that could be tweaked that could help with hair and final recovery. Note my private GP has recommended pregnenolone and dhea to help adrenals – will this help re hair?
Thank you for helping
Lizanne
Blood tests & ranges
TSH 0.07 (0.3 to 4.5)
T3 free 3.64 (2.1 to 4.2)
T4 free 0.86 (0.7 to 1.8)
Testosterone 85 (150 to 600) this result doesn’t look good at all – is it linked to adrenals??
DHEA 41 (65 to 280) doesn’t look great either
Urine tests
T3 1770 (800 to 2500)
T4 2120 (550 to 3160) looks high here but is low in blood tests – why would that be?
Total 17 OH steroids 2.81 (3.17 to 8.63) I don’t know what this is either but doesn’t look good
Saliva Test
These are my adrenal/cortisol/DHEA levels and the time the test was done. The overall comment was that I was at Resistance Stage 3 - Maladaption
1 (after waking at 7am)
results 17.6. Results on the normal range. The range was 12-22
2 (4.5 hours later)
results 4.8. Results low and outside the range. The range was 5-9
3 (another 4.5 hours later)
results 2.6. Results low and outside the range. The range was 3-7
4 (just before bed time)
results 1.4. Results in normal range. The range was 1-3
total daily cortisol 26.4 (range 21 to 41).
DHEA levels
0.08 (results were low) range 0.30 to 1.00
0.10 (results were low) range 0.30 to 1.00
DHEA:Cortisol Ration 0.34 (results were low) range 1.0 to 4.0