Any Underactive Thyroid Sufferers?

drewfromrisca

Over past year or so I've progressively seen my energy levels drop drastically combined with a struggle to get a good nights sleep and a problem with weight gain even though my diet is fantastic and extremely healthy. I've often had bouts real low moods and depression lately, something I've never suffered from before.
I always have a headache in the morning and my muscles ache terrible as though I haven't been to bed all night but I've been out for a 15 mile run!
This weekend a friend told me that their father had these symptoms and was diagnosed with underactive thyroid.

I'm planning on going to the doctors to explain my problems but I was wondering if anyone on here has suffered/knows someone who has this problem?

jcuk

Sort of.

My wife was dignosed with an overacive tyhroid - Weight loss, hyperactivity, only slept a couple of hours a night. AFAIR the treatment was to be given a large dose of somthing to shut the thyroid down effictively giving her an under active thyroid.
She was on tablets for about 3 years after this with a slowly reducing dose and she's now drug (and symptom) free. I remeber the drug names being somthing like Thyroxine and Carbimazol. Cant remember what was for what.
Most of this happened befre we we together so the details are a bit scetchy. One thing I do remember is that the test for thyroid activity is very simple so overactivity / underactivity can eaisly be ruled in or out by your GP.

I'm a bit surprised by the sleeping bit though. When se was underactive she could sleep for britian.

She looked into lots of thyroid stuff when she was ill. If you want to know anything, ask and I'lll pass queries along.

drewfromrisca

Cheers mate, might be helpful.
The sleep issue is a pain. I want to just sleep sleep sleep but I struggle getting off to sleep at night.

Mister W

I have a friend, a fellow ironman triathlete, who has serious thyroid problems. I'll be happy to pass your name to him and ask if he'd be willing to chat. Send me a PM if you'd like me to ask him.

reecesanford

My mum was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid about 15 years ago and back then they operated on her.Unfortunately they took too much of her thyroid away and now shes on pills for the rest of her life.She was seriously thin at the beginning.

Then 5 years ago i was also diagnosed.I was losing weight,sweating,hands shaking amongst other symptoms.
What they did with me though was gave me to pills to send it the other way.Not impressed i soon put back on the 2 stone i lost.Then to counteract it they gave me some other pills too.
It stabilised it in the end and now everything is normal and i dont take any pills.

cakewalk

drewfromrisca wrote:

Over past year or so I've progressively seen my energy levels drop drastically combined with a struggle to get a good nights sleep and a problem with weight gain even though my diet is fantastic and extremely healthy. I've often had bouts real low moods and depression lately, something I've never suffered from before.
I always have a headache in the morning and my muscles ache terrible as though I haven't been to bed all night but I've been out for a 15 mile run!
This weekend a friend told me that their father had these symptoms and was diagnosed with underactive thyroid.

I'm planning on going to the doctors to explain my problems but I was wondering if anyone on here has suffered/knows someone who has this problem?

Firstly - do not worry.

Wife has under active. Very very treatable - you just taker thyroxine.
Key is getting the amount of thyroxine right. Our GP let us down a bit on this - he spent ages slowly upping the level (you know it right from blood tests). In the end paid to see a consultant - soon sorted. Also lucky in that our new GP is a fellow sufferer (top tip - always try and get a GP with the same ailments as yourself!)

However we are both knackered all the time now as post sorting this out we had two kids ...

So - wife now fine - and definitely not overweight.

wiffachip

the missus was at the hospital yesterday and they reckon she's got Hashimoto's Disease, not sure what that means, but it's got something to do with the thyroid gland. I need to research it.

neeb

You should definitely go to the doctor's and get an opinion, these symptoms could be caused by any number of things (thyroid included), e.g. you say you have been feeling depressed - depression alone could cause these symptoms.

Good luck with getting to the bottom of it.

Stormy

Thyroid problems are a complete pain in the arse, I was diagnosed with an over active thyroid 11 years ago and stupidly ignored the symptoms, blaming it on my (at the time) high pressure job.

It’s been explained by the other contributors(symptoms), and it really does make you feel bloody awful, treatment at that time involved shutting down my thyroid (bringing it to an under active state) and then taking the chemical it produces (Thyroxin) orally in a measured and monitored dose. The idea being after a period of two years and stabilisation the thyroid recovers and is eventually woken up again, which in my case worked just fine………..until…..

About a year ago I started exhibiting the same problems all over again – exactly 10 years from the first episode, accelerated heart beat (at rest), unquenchable thirst, it was definitely back and the blood test proved it. So this time I chose a slightly different treatment where the thyroid was not put to sleep but managed initially using Carbimazol (which incidentally gave me tinnitus ) subsequently replaced with Propylthiouracil (a C/mazol) equivalent).

Anyway the upshot for me is this, I certainly do not want another thyroid problem in 10 years time (the percentage of a total recovery second time drops by half), so I’m having or taking a radioactive pill (carefully measured out in dose) which will effectively destroy my thyroid without any medical procedure and I’m told I will become radioactive for about a month lol. From there on in, it will be a simple pill every day, and a blood test (once they get the balance right) every year.

Ignoring an over active thyroid can damage your heart permanently, and being under active makes life a really miserable existence, the drugs used to control a thyroid can also lower your white blood cell count so be aware of infections (I’m just recovering from the mother of all chest infections myself). The mood swings are really difficult for people around you so bear that in mind too. Good luck, it is treatable and when you recover you will feel amazing, there’s no other word for it.

ratherbeintobago

neeb wrote:

You should definitely go to the doctor's and get an opinion, these symptoms could be caused by any number of things (thyroid included), e.g. you say you have been feeling depressed - depression alone could cause these symptoms.

Good luck with getting to the bottom of it.

+1

Could be all manner of things. At least thyroid disorders can usually be diagnosed from a blood test (as I understand it, & IANAEndocrinologist...)

RBIT

midlifecrisis999

i was diagnosed with an under active thyroid about 6 years ago. For some time i thought something was wrong with me but couldnt work out what. Blood tests didnt reveal anything at first but eventually i got a call from my GP with the 'i need to see you we found summut wrong with your blood' line. After soiling myself he said it was treatable but i would be on medication for the rest of my life, no great hardship. I didnt realise how bad i was until i got better, if you know what i mean. Personally it affects my muscles the most, in particular my legs. My daughter gave me a dead leg recently, nice eh, the pain stayed with me for 8 days! As for the bike you can still enjoy it and once you get your daily dose sorted you should be ok.

End of the day get down the docs and let the vampires do their stuff and look forward to free prescriptions

N0bodyOfTheGoat

With those symptoms, it is also possible that you have become a sufferer of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Hopefully your GP can work out what is going on.

don key

I'm dying but I have just done fifty miles so i'll get back on this tomorrow. I have it but it's possibly a combination of things.

don key

The symptoms

One day last year I felt tired at 230pm and lay on the sofa for a snooze, I woke up 7 hours later with an awful , heavy session hangover, I seriously think I nearly died that day

After Christmas 13 months ago I did my usual Sunday 80 miles and I was so tired I didn't think I would make it home. I did not ride more than 4 miles each way for the next 14 weeks and that was done slowly, I got back into the vets races in April and did a few thirty to fourty mile training rides which were tiring. In May my friend asked me to go out on Monday and he dragged me around Herts for five hours, the next night at Hillingdon I was flying, he then texted me that night to say we'd have another go next day, 102 fuggin miles and I was worn out but my season never looked back as I slowly but surely got better every week leading up to a third cat win in mid August, for the first time in two years. Every time I overdo it my upper lip breaks out in sores and a few other minor ailments come along but nothing unmanagable. I never rode the bike from 24 sept last till the 20 October and I was shattered all over again and I'm now finding that if I don't excercise I get really bad after a few weeks. I have deliberately not done much training this winter and my performance in races is through the roof, compared to any other year, where I seriously feel I'm in contention, I never ever performed in mid winter before.

I do thirty to fifty miles training and stop after twenty or so for a banana and find myself flying home in race mode. My liver is misfiring and my legs are really sore sometimes but I think that is from hard short training compared to the long rides before without to much pushing.

Initially last year, in March I was not getting better and my dad told me to get "grape fruit seed essence", coincidentally I started getting better straight away having initially thought I was finished as a rider. I take loads of vitamins and stuff and as much fruit as I can handle, smoothies made with frozen bananas and other fruit with soya milk, it is just like ice cream and taste great. No prepacked food ever, all made at home as it is the only way to control your intake, I do have a whizz bang drink but it's not a secret having been taken off the banned list three or four years ago and I have it mid race and I'm ballistic . I'm having further tests at UCH next couple of weeks and as my Hypothyroidism is borderline I dare not think what it must be like if it's full blown. It makes me dead lazy , the opposite of how I really am, if I have the Hypothyroidism on me I don't even pick things up and having a bath or even cooking is an ordeal, falling asleep all the time, the record was abot 16 out of a 24 hour period, excercise stimulates the thyroid so by not riding I unintentionally made it worse. I will endeavour as my Pam Ayres are a bit thin and I'd love to yearn for first cat while loo keen down on the turds.