Hypothyroidism Support Group
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 common being Hashimoto's thyroiditis and hypothyroidism following radioiodine therapy for hyperthyroidism. Advanced hypothyroidism may cause severe complications, the most serious one of which is...
Anyone on this site who suffers from both MG and hypothyroidism? I've had MG for 60 years......diagnosed in l952 but it has remained ocular..going in and out of remission thru the past 60 years. About 5 weeks ago it reoccurred......moving into my right eye. (always been confined to my left eye previously). In reading so many postings on the MG Support Group site I see that I have lots of symptoms of Hashimoto's Disease. I'm just curious. My thyroid readings are:
TSH 4.52. T-3- 2.81. T-4 1.21
TSH 4.52. T-3- 2.81. T-4 1.21
Sorry for the reason you're here but glad you found us.
It's not uncommon for people to have more than one autoimmune disease and it's clear you are dealing with hypothyroidism.
The cause is most likely Hashi's since that is the most common cause of hypothyroidism.
Healthy people have TSH 1.0 - 1.5.....your TSH level indicates that, without a doubt, your actual thyroid hormone levels are too low for your body's needs. A high TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) such as yours means that your pituitary gland is trying to stimulate your thyroid to produce more hormone but the thyroid just isn't responding.
Your actual thyroid hormone levels are lower than what most healthy people would have. Based upon your lab's ranges, a healthy person would have a FreeT3 level around 3.6-4.06 and a FreeT4 level around 1.4-1.6.
Having FreeT3/T4 levels lower than what a healthy person would have means that your levels are hypothyroid.
I hope you can find a doctor who recognizes your hypothyroidism and starts you on treatment.
Please keep us posted.
My current thyroid doctor (#5) is an internist. My first 3 thyroid doctors were endos. My current doctor was shocked to discover how my former endos mismanaged my care.
Endos like my former ones were the reason this petition was recently started:
http://www.change.org/petitions/endocrinologists-patients-with-thyroid-dysfunction-demand-better-care
I became aware of the above petition because someone posted it on the Graves' forum here. I've since become aware of other petitions with similar goals.
It is obviously a global problem *but* all is not lost. There ARE thyroid-savvy doctors out there.
The only way to know whether or not a particular doctor "gets thyroid" is to develop an understanding of the disease and learn how to interpret labs.
Two great starter books are "Thyroid for Dummies" and "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Hypothyroidism".
Ironically, they were both written by endos :)
The endo-author of the latter book discusses people having "normal" (aka in-range) thyroid labs yet raging hypothyroidism.
Treating thyroid disease isn't all that difficult but it seems that many doctors lost or didn't develop the clinical skills to properly evaluate symptoms....and, it seems that many of them were sleeping during the single class they had on the thyroid.
Yes, thyroid disease is a very common disorder...and it happens mostly in women. With the exception of breast cancer, women's health issues just don't get the same attention that men's issues get.
Still, we can rise above all the nonsense, learn what we need to know to feel well while having thyroid disease and rally for the proper care.
The end result is freedom from the symptoms of and health issues associated with hypothyroidism.
I'm glad you found this place. I'm here to pay forward all the great help I received from thyroid forum members when I first started dealing with thyroid disease. Not surprisingly, I'm happy to help.