I can definitely relate. I am 42 and have had poor health for the last 3 years. I was finally diagnosed with "Chronic Fatigue". I, too, am in the process of treating my hormone levels. I also take medications for anxiety/panic. My thyroid labs are "normal" but sub-optimal. I am hoping to start thyroid meds soon to see if it helps with my fatigue, muscle weakness, brain fog..... I know it gets confusing about what is causing which symptom and which medication is doing what??? I can totally relate.

You should post your most recent thyroid labs for the more knowledgable members to comment on. Be sure to include the range. Do you have TSH, FT3, FT4???

Howdy!

Glad you're here, but sorry you're dealing with all of this.

I have lupus....AND hypo thyroidism (among other things).

I can tell you this: Hypothyroidism and Lupus go together many, many times because they are BOTH auto immune diseases. Chances are - especially with Lupus - if you have ONE AI disease you will invariably get another. Treating each one optimally, is extremely important.

Here's the catch 22 that comes with my set of AI issues:
Hypothyroidism flares up - can't get out of bed, want to sleep all the time, and my joints/pain gets much worse. Thinking becomes impossible and then, of course, my Lupus flares.
OR The converse happens:
Lupus flares up, can't function, thyroid levels go off the charts again....and I can't function times TWO.

I'm also not surprised that you were diagnosed with fibromyalgia - you're bound to be hurting all over with both of these diseases (I know I do).

In my experience - fibromyalgia meds did NOT help me. Cymbalta, Lyrica, etc - NONE of them helped me at all. All I got was another subset of side affects.

What will help you ask?

Finding a good rheumatologist to manage your Lupus.
Finding a good doctor (your ob/gyn sounds ok) to manage your hypo thyroidism.
De-stressing your life
Eating well
Resting
Staying physically active when possible as much as possible

This is a HARD balancing act. I know....I live it every day.

However, there is hope:
Your hypo thyroidism can get worse before it gets better....that's not uncommon. ...especially with armour.

It works something like this: T3 levels go up, T4 levels come down....but all that really means is that you need a new set of tests and probably a dosage increase. I'd work that angle first...while seeking treatment for Lupus - make sure you make your rheumy aware of your double condition.

The tests you need done are the following:
TSH
FREE T3
FREE T4

Once you have those...come back here and someone will help you interpret them.
That's really the only thing that's going to tell you what's going on with your thyroid condition.

here's some info:
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/basics_starthere/a/20secrets.htm

With this "double curse" things can get VERY ugly VERY quickly - so don't wait. Get an appt today for tests.

I can relate! i've been diagnosed with hashimotos' and fibromyalgia,and mixed connective tissue disease(possibly lupus),and also depression/anxiety disorder.My drs dont agree on whats wrong with me or the treatment.i feel horrible and they pass the buck to the next dr.
I'm flaring right now with bad fatigue and brain fog.i cant figure out which probem it is and dont even know which dr to see (if any).
I was sent to a back surgeon last summer for cervical disk disease(forgot that one)...and he said i have nerve damage on my left side.i asked him "Is it from the herniated disk?" and he said "I honestly dont know what its from because you have alot going on" is frustrating!!
Alot of these diseases have overlapping symptoms and also can trigger each other.The thyroid can increase fibro pain and that can increase depression being in pain all the time.

I feel so very badly for people suffering with multiple issues - I know my doctors wanted to pin a few on me.

Instead, I pushed for optimal thyroid treatment and found that the other issues disappeared - that told me my thyroid levels were to blame.

I'm not saying the thyroid causes *every* problem but, it makes sense to me to optimize thyroid levels and see what's left.

My research has shown that chronic fatigue and fibro didn't come into existence as diagnoses until after the invention of the TSH test. There's a school of thought that CFS and fibro are actually manifestations of undiagnosed/improperly treated hypothyroidism.

In his book "The Thyroid Solution", endo Ridha Arem writes about anxiety and/or depression being a manifestation of sub-optimal FreeT3 levels.

According to thyroid textbooks, healthy people have FreeT4 levels near the high end of the range and FreeT3 levels above mid-range.

DSRM - you may know that Armour is made from porcine thyroid. Well, porcine thyroid has a larger proportion of T3 than T4 compared to human thyroid.

This means that people taking Armour will have a FreeT3 level that is proportionately higher in the range than the FreeT4 level.

Some people are fine with this but, many find the need to add T4 and have both meds adjusted until their levels are similar to those of healthy people.

Please know that, until both the FreeT4 *and* FreeT3 levels have been optimized, we can have symptoms.

Being close isn't good enough. It's like being pregnant - we either are pregnant or we're not.

I will gladly show you how to interpret your thyroid labs - please feel free to post your most recent results here with the ranges.

(different labs use different ranges so your results can only be properly interpreted within the context of your lab's ranges).

Let's get your thyroid optimized - it can only help.

CD is right on. if your levels of T-3 are low, you will have pain, I do. I feel much better on Armour, as that seemed to be my main symptom of being hypo after Graves.Also feeling low or depressed as Cd said. Many feel like this when levels are low. It can be very simple like you need a different dose or med. I can't comment on Lupus, don't know much about that except that yes, it's auto immune and you can have 2 of those at once. I have antibodies for Graves and Hashi's so I can be somewhat harder to control at times (especially when I'm stressed out bad)I hope you find an answer. Maybe you need an increase in the Armour? You would need to post recent labs to see.