What is Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism is the disease state caused by insufficient production of thyrohormone by the thyroid gland. There are several distinct causes for chronic hypothyroidism, the most c...
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need advise about possible hypothroidism
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Hello
when i was new born I was tested for hypothroidism. The blood came back negative. through out my life I have always bee prone to weight gain and mood swings beyond my control. I can remember being very unhappy my entire life for no reason. I had much troubles with painful woman cycles through out my life and had a hystorecotmy finally at age 36. I still have an extreme weight issude. My hair is dry and brittle. i have depression and aniexitety that medication does not cure. I have bad fatigue and aches and pians all over my body. I was diagnossed with fibromyalgia in 2006. I have some pretty bad spinal issues with degenerative dik disease etc... so I have a lot of pain from that any ways. my legs and ankles swell profusely. I get bad migraine headaches. My skin is very dry. I get pretty bad acne on my face. and the list goes on. I have always thought it was hypothroidism. I have seen my doctor numerous times and had a gazillion blood tests come back normal. I went to an endochronologist who also repeated blood work but pretty much made me feel like I am just a hypochondriac. I tend to go to the doctors more so that the average person and have way more medical complaints than the average person. All the docs say that it is not hypothroidism because the blood is ok. Then I was looking through some of my medical records and at one point my doctor did say that the thyroid was enlarged in the record. Then recently I had a blood test come back abnormal for hypothyroidism but instead of treating it the doctor sent me back for another blood test which came back normal. If I truely have fibromyalgia then fine but right now I am so fatigued, have so much anxiety, and of course the issues with my back that I am not working. I am gaining weight regularly to the point that i am now considered obese. I look at food and gain weight. I also have suffered with the whole constipation issue my whole life. i take anit depressants with no relief what so ever and now have to go to behavioral health for services because my doctor said she could not help me any more as the meds she has given me through the years dont work. I have even had a sonogram done on the thyroid that was normal so no goiter or anything. But when i do the symptom checklist it all points to thyroid. It always has and none of the treatment i get for all these sypmptoms work and none of the doc I have seen are willing to go further with treatment for thyroid. so I am a medical mess and a hypochondriac. about 13 years ago a family memebr came to me out of the blue and gave me a book. She said I think you suffer from hypothyroidism. the book was on the subject and after readinging it I was convinced that it was written all about me. What can i do to get help whent he tests come back normal? I was on a support group earlier for fibro and got a responce from someone on there. Shesaid you sound exactly like me. she went on to tell me her story and then told me she is hypothroid. the whole time she had this issue. I think i have been suffering my whole life with this but cant get any one to hear me with out them thinking I am just a hypochondriac. Any suggestions out there?? Posted on 09/09/09, 06:09 pm |
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well...I hate to tell someone this that truely sounds like that have it, but the blood tests dont lie. If you truely do have hypothyroidism then your bloodwork would come back as abnormal. Your tsh levels and T3 and T4 would be low. Your levels would be off and your drs would have to give meds for some kinda treatment. I am sorry that you are going through so much, but I know how you feel. I have Rhuematoid Arthritis and numrous other things, list to long to type. lol I hope that you find some relief with one doctor. Maybe go to another endocrinologist and get tested. I hope that you find some answers. 
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Lupus has alot of the same symptoms. Look this up on the computer. Did you ever get a copy of your blood work with the totals on it? Compare them to what the computer says, look at either Webmd or MayoClinic.com. Drs. always make a person feel like they are crazy when they can't find out what is wrong. It is the easiest bucket to put a person in. Maybe try to go to an internal medicine dr. Hope that you can get help..
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I that you should seek another doctor for answers. Take all your past lab results and make your presentation. What I hear a lot on hypo is that a lot of doctors go by how you feel, and not so much the labs.
As for the constipation, I had the same problem until my nutritionist advised me to start taking magnesium supplements. I take Solaray Magnesium (that's what the bottle says) 200mg. Solved the problem immediately, and regularity is part of my life now. Hope this helps.
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I spoke to my girlfriend's doctor the other day.
He said that in med school doctors are taught that if someone has all the symptoms they have hypothyroidism and that the tests help them zero in. But, that the tests are backup for how the person is feeling. If you are feeling off, he puts higher priority to that then the test results. My first suggestion: Be careful here. A family member gave you a book and you are searching through the web for ideas. You are not speaking to Doctors here. Just people who have a condition you may or may not have. You only mentioned TSH. You need T3, T4 and a full throid panel to be able to say anything here. Do you have a copy of your results? I want you to journal your symptoms. Put down what you are noticing each day. If there are any changes note those. Note what is consistent every day. Get a copy of all your lab results. Post a question on justanswers.com and get a second opinion on them. List your symptoms there and ask, "how do you advise I approach these symptoms to get them fully managed? I've been going to doctors and the symptoms have not been managed." I cannot say that the blood work you have received is a complete thyroid panel. May have been, but you haven't posted anything here. I don't think you are a hypochondriac if you truly have that lack of symptoms. A hypochondriac would be a fully healthy person coming in because they think they have cancer because it got in their mind. I think you've got something that needs to be diagnosed and treated. Can't say exactly what it is, but you likely would do better to start with a new doctor if you aren't getting there. Just go to a new doctor and get another opinion. Bring the full list of symptoms from your journal - explain, "I've been dealing with this for a very very long time and I am looking for someone to help me get this right." Say, " I don't care if I need to go to four specialists, come in here once every two months, whatever it takes, will you help me get this right?" Post on justanswers.com to see what kind of opinions and information you can get. The analysis of my bloodwork matched what my Dr. said. Ben Ps. I feel for you on this. You have a lot on your plate to deal with. I wish you the best and hope I've been a help.
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I do have one of the panels that was doen in 08 but have the most recent testing coming in the mail from the doctors office. When i spoke to the doc yesterday they said that I had a TSH of .34 which they said would make me hyper not hypo but they repeated the test and it came back with a TSH of .66. They did not give me the entire panel numbers so they are sending to me. I will post it when I get it.
the test I had back on 10-27-08 was this TSH .43 Free T4 1.0 anti TPO .2 Anti-Thyroglobulin 0.22 all normal according to the lab that did them. So maybe it is not thyroid. Idont know. i just can go down the checklist and check every single thing on there from high cholesterol to dry hair and nail to slow wound healing to depression that does not respond to medication anxiety that does not respond to medication. and the list goes on and on..... even if my blood work is ok something is literallyt aking my lfe away so the docs call it fibomyalgia. unfortunately there is no real treatment for that when if it were thyroid there would be some hope. Grasping at straws? maybe.... Thanks for your help. FYI, i see my doctor regularly and have my thyroid tested on an ongoing basis so i am not just coming here or searching the web for answers. I really do see my doc. the next time i go we will be talking tyroid again and going over the list of symptoms. Again, thanks you guys so much for taking the time to read about my whining!! I really appreciate this site and all it has to offer!!!
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Not all med schools, if any teach drs. to look at symptoms. Especially when it comes to the thyroid, that is why people are on here saying they have symptoms but the tests are ok so the dr. won't medicate them. This has been talked about over and over on here and I have experienced it many times also with drs. Also, your tests you mentioned did not include the T3 numbers which is very important.
The internet is an EXCELLENT source of information---mostly I would trust WebMD and MayoClinic.com the rest could be giving out anything. Those are the ones drs. use alot to refer to also. If I wouldn't have went on the internet and printed out the symptoms of hypothyroid I would still be suffering. I brought those symptoms to my dr and made him order the test for it and it was confirmed and he was fired by me. A person has to be very FORCEFUL with drs. and just because someone has a relative that is a dr does not mean he knows anything about thyroid conditions. My best advice has come from other people, then I take it to the internet, look it up on the those sites and bring all the info to the dr. I DO NOT trust many drs they just pass it off as nothing. And yes, lupus is also an autoimmune disease which has alot of symptoms similar to thyroid. It does not hurt to check it out with a dr----as far as fibromyalgia, alot of people are told that when the dr does not want to really investigate the true problems. I know of alot of people that were told they had that only to find out it wasn't true. This site does help each other and gives some direction based on experience----we may not have the fancy degree displayed on the wall but have been through it all and learned alot by experience which is the best teacher anyway. Degrees mean nothing unless the person truly learned something to get it. Best wishes to you and please do listen to others they do have knowledge on this subject. Take care.....
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Just a note----The dr giving advice on justanswers.com is a surgeon specializing in sports medicine so I hardly think this guy knows anything about the THYROID.
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As a note regarding justanswers.com.
When you submit a question, there are thousands of experts on there. Last time, I saw a bunch of different ones looking at the question and one specific one answered. Also, any Medical doctor should be able to work with thyroid issues, including surgeons. It is not something highly specialized, or extraordinarily complicated. The issue is that some doctors haven't read up on it further after med school, aren't current...etc. By Girlfriend's doctor earlier, I meant girlfriend's Father. He is an MD/PHD in Biochemistry. So, he spoke to me specifically regarding the chemistry and the current knowledge. He stated to me that his endocrinologist friend said doctors are taught in med school to look at the symptoms ahead of the tests for thyroid issues, but that once they leave med school it is not how they actually practice. Apparently, there is a lot of dialog amongst endorinologists right now. I do believe the knowledge on this site is excellent amongst the users. I have also witnessed puzzled and clueless physicians and know some people in these groups would have picked up on it. My advice, as always, is pull together info and try to confirm it from both sides. An expert should be involved and the support group might guide you best who to talk to and what to talk to them about. Great combo for a system that seems to let people fall through the cracks. Ben
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As a side note, there is some study right now into thyroids that is being conducted within the field of sports medicine, so doctors in that field may be knowledgeable.
There is a common occurrence that triatheletes and marathon runners... professional bikers... seem to come down with permanent thyroid issues after long periods of intensive training. Ben
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For some reason most docs don't test the Free T 3 ,you need that done, it's probably low.
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