Hypothyroidism Support Group

Hi, sometimes after having a baby you can develop thyroid problems.

Your TSH is very high and am glad you are being treated.

They like to check out the thyroid real well to see if there are lumps, swollen thyroid etc.

That seems like a high dose to start out with though which may cause a bit of stress on your adrenals. Usually the starting dose is 25 to 50mcgs, then you go back in 6 to 8 weeks for more testing. You keep going back until you are on the right dose for you.

My thyroid problems started after the birth of my daughter last Sept, I went hyper first, then hypo, VERY hypo. I had many of your symptoms that only got worse over time because I was undiagnosed for many months. 100 mcgs to start is way TOO high as bm55 said. I would contact your doctor and request to start on a lower dose. It is also important to get your FreeT3 tested along with your FreeT4. As far as seeing an endo, most of them are useless, a pcp who knows what they are doing can treat this. But most of the time, the thyroid does become inflammed, mine did to the point I felt I was choking. It's still inflammed, but not as bad. It should go down in time. It takes many many months to start feeling better, but finding a good dr is key. But trust me, 100mcgs is too much to start on.

Thyroid antibodies in your blood that are high indicates you have an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. The antibodies are currently attacking your thyroid and are destroying it as though it is a foreign object.

As the thyroid is attacked in the beginning, the body becomes flooded with excess thyroid hormone, causeing some hyperthyroid symptoms like weight loss or inability to gain weight.

As the disease progresses, the thyroid becomes more taxed and weaker due to the destruction and this is when you will swing into full on hypothyroidism.

The only way to halt the progression of Hashimoto's is to supplement with thyroid hormone almost to the point where the Pituitary gland no longer needs to secrete TSH (the hormone that stimulates the thyroid to produce T3 and T4). This gives the thyroid a break and will reduce the number of antibodies in the system.

You are going to want to get your TSH levels down to about 0.3-0.4

Most doctors are not comfortable with this because they are afraid you will become hyperthyroid. With Hashimoto's this is not necessarily the case though. As long as your FT4 and FT3 ranges are in the upper normal (80-90% and 60-75% respectively) you will not be hyperthyroid and most symptoms should go away.

Remeber, before the TSH test was developed in the 70's (which most endos tend to worship as the gold standard for thyroid testing and thus leave a lot of patients with hypo symptoms because TSH is in the "normal" range, even if it is high normal) doctors diagnosed and treated hypothyroidism based on symptoms and whether thyroid medication alleviated them.

Do be afraid to ask your endo how hypo was diagnosed and treated before the TSH test. Then tell them that is how you want to be treated, based on your symptoms, not some numbers on a piece of paper.

Also, they need to feel your throat to see if you have a goiter, swelling of the thyroid.

You will start to feel the medication in about six weeks. That is how long it takes for the dose to stabilize in the system. If, in six weeks you are still having symptoms, it might be a good idea to have a minor dose increase and then test the blood again in six weeks.

With Hashimoto's, you will most likely need to be on thyroid supplementation for life. I have it too.

Also, after you have been on the synthetic T4 meds for a while, I would recommend getting your FT3 tested also. If your FT3 is lower than your FT4, you are having a conversion problem of the inactive T4 hormone being turned into the active T3 hormone your body needs for energy.

If this is the case, you will also need to supplement with T3 medication.

When I was diagnosed with Hashi's, I was started on 75mcg of Levoxyl.

With the autoimmune problem, the starting dose sometimes needs to be higher to slow down the destruction to the thyroid.