Pseudotumor Cerebri Support Group

Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) is a neurological disorder that is characterized by increased intracranial pressure, in the absence of a tumor or other diseases affecting the brain or its lining. Diagnosis requires brain scans and lumbar puncture. Characteristic symptoms are headache, transient visual obscurations or transient visual loss in one or both eyes usually lasting...

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Kind of a Girly question

armywife96
armywife96
Ok I'll try and keep it short. When I was diagnosed with IIH they said come off birth control. So I had the paragard IUD put in December 2011. All was well with it no problems. To date I still have no problems with it. However in June 2012 I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I found that very odd as I am overweight, can't lose weight to save my life and at the time had no symptoms of it. So fast forward to October 2012 I started having weird symptoms right around the time of my period (I think I posted about it once before). It was almost like anxiety (even though I've never had it before), mood swings, my periods were all over the place, etc. I knew it had to be hormone related and honestly didn't think it was my IIH at all (well nothing new with my IIH). I've asked the doctor but I swear the only thing that they know how to say is LOSE WEIGHT IT WILL GO AWAY. So Mary's post earlier today had me doing research as I know I have to stay away from certain foods that spike the thyroid but wanting to give her suggestions a try. I stumble across copper toxicity and hyperthyroidism together in the same topic. The symptoms described are identical, they explain hormone fluctuations during the month, they talked about mood swings and anxiety and then how people who are more curvy tend to suffer more easily from copper toxicity. Also people with copper toxicity tend to have chronic sinus infections.
armywife96
armywife96
grr it cut off half my post. Anyway I looked through the foods I eat which aren't many and they aren't going to be very high in copper so that only leaves the IUD.
Has anyone heard of the copper IUD leading to copper toxicity and/or hyperthyroidism?
Sophiasmom06
Sophiasmom06
I am not sure what to say about the copper issue, but in functional medicine the aim is to keep copper low and not let levels exceed zinc levels. I had a Paraguard in 2008 and my body rejected it. terrible pain, I thought it had perforated my uterus. I'm glad you don't have a Mirena as this has been reported to possibly cause IIH.

the reason you get worse around your period?
http://doctorstevenpark.com/is-your-throat-sore-just-before-your-periods
OSA is worse around your period due to hormonal effect on upper airway tone. it might get better if you lose weight, as OSA tends to get better with weight loss. didn't work for me however, as it depends on upper airway anatomy.
Sophiasmom06
Sophiasmom06
just googling briefly it seems like low copper is associated with hyperthyroidism. my hyperthyroidism and IIH seemed to come on together, certainly within 6 months of each other. and I know I had OSA back then and prior to the development of both problems. not sure the copper has anything to do with it. but if it were me I'd probably get the IUD out, to be on the safe side.

and make your docs deal with the OSA issue. one of my daughter's friends had a study similar to yours I think. only 2 apneas all night, but she desaturated to 80% so they diagnosed OSA. but you have to know that for her to desat like that, she surely had more sleep disordered breathing than they detected. I'm sure the same thing happened with your study. they picked up the desats but not the apnea, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there! the criteria have changed, new recommendations as of October 2012 so ask for them to repeat the study with the new criteria and maybe they will find it this time?
SeaSprite
SeaSprite
I learn so much from everyone in this group it's not even funny.

I just looked up copper deficiency in wikipedia (which we all know contains perfect knowledge, lol....). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_deficiency

It doesn't sound like it's common, but it does happen. Symptoms include ataxia, peripheral neuropathy (which many of us have anyway), optic neuropathy (color blindness and vision loss). A lot of stuff we have anyway. I guess a bloodtest would answer the question easily. I doubt it's my problem. I eat far too much dark chocolate which is high in copper. :-)
magnatomamma
magnatomamma
SeaSprite, I think Armywife was saying she is worried her cooper level is high. I actually read a book a few years back about treating depression and other psychological problems with vitamins and minerals. A doctor who has conducted years of research found that most patients had high copper levels, and low Vit B levels. He treats a whole hospital of patients with vitamins and eliminating cooper and they recover. I actually only purchase prenatal vitamins because they do not have cooper. I believe if we have cooper water pipes in the house we are getting a daily dose of cooper. Pretty interesting stuff.
armywife96
armywife96
Yes Magnatomamm, I am thinking my level is too high. I went back to find the articles I read and uncovered more that say the opposite so now I am more confused half say high copper levels will lead to hyper and the other half say it will lead to hypo. However, they all talk about the same symptoms that I am having. So whether or not it has anything to do with the thyroid it may very well be connected to my symptoms. As for copper pipes, yes we have very old copper pipes in our military housing, quite often our water is kind of a weak tea color from the pipes breaking down. I don't drink it and try not to cook with it unless it is filtered but not showering in it is impossible and I am sure it can be absorbed that way. I have also read several reports that say copper IUD's can lead to copper toxicity in some people.
I guess the reason I was making the thyroid connection is I developed it only a few months after the placement of the IUD and then the symptoms a few months later.