Hypothyroidism Info for My Wife

Hi all. I am looking for some information and possible help for my wife from someone who is knowledgeable or has had dealings with this condition.

As far as background my wife is 42 and currently on synthroid 88mcg. Up until about 8 years ago, she was involved in some local and regional figure competitions and she was thoroughly enjoying it. She told me she got a lot enjoyment out of the competition and how she was able to make her body look, even though she always thought she had to work at it twice as hard as other women. She was having more and more trouble controlling her weight and finally got to the point she stopped competing.

Besides the weight, she was tired a lot of the time, had dry skin, was losing hair in the shower and when she was drying it, and was she somewhat depressed and start losing interest in almost everything. She finally talked with her GP about possible thyroid issues. She had the regularly T4 TSH blood work and was diagnosed with mild hypothyroidism and placed on the minimum dose of synthroid.

8 years later she has gone up to the 88mcg. She still has pretty much the same symptoms, but they are not quit as sever. The only way she can lose any weight is going on very, very low carb diet and a ton of cardio. Even then, it is very slow like a pound a week. If she cuts back on anything are is not consistent her weight goes right backup.

In doing my own research on TRT for myself I have stumbled upon various information about the role of T3 in hypothyroidism. The information seems to be spotty and controversial but I thought it might have something to do with my wifes condition.

She is a RN and is skeptical about anything that doesnt come out her docs mouth. She seems to be comfortable with her GPs treatment because it is what it is and she has pretty much resigned herself to the fact it is not going to get any better because there is nothing else to do.

She has told me she feels like she is too young to be dealing with this and how much she wishes she could get back even close to where her body was before. I love her very much and I hate to see her to continue to struggle like this and wish there was something I could do.

Does anyone have any creditable information I could point her to that my show there are other options? Has anyone else gone through this and could share their experience.

As far as current levels, all I have to go one is what the GPs office mailed after the last blood work about 2 weeks ago. T4 free 1.00/TSH 0.803 The note says these are within normal limits.

So the Dr hasn’t tested her T3? It doesn’t matter if your T4 is normal if it isn’t converting to T3 properly.

^^^
HIS.

Synthroid is synthetic T4. Looks like her doc is testing for T4. T4 means NOTHING if your body isn’t converting it into the active thryoid hormone T3. Guess what, LOTS OF US don’t convert AT ALL.

She needs to get a FreeT3 test. The FT3 result needs to be in the top 2/3 - 3/4 of the lab range for her particular lab in order to be optimized. I would bet dollars to donuts she’s barely in range if AT ALL.

Get the FreeT3 test. She will need to take T3 the synthetic brand name is Cytomel. I would want to START with at least 10mcg and keep getting increases every six weeks based on the FT3 lab result until the FT3 was OPTIMIZED.

Bad news - she has one of the 99/100 doctors that treat hypo completely incorrectly.

Oh yaah TSH also meaningless… its a test of how well the PITUITARY gland is doing its job.

Start at stopthethyroidmadness.com

Also lots of great info on the website for my doctor www.holtorfmed.com

Your wife is sick and needs some decent medical treatment.

Being a RN she hasn’t researched stuff herself? That’s so nice that she trusts her Dr. rolls eyes

I’m STILL going through the hell of being on T4 only.

Read this:

And this:

And then maybe she can look for a Dr that tests Ft4 Ft3 and antibodies…
Or you can go here:
http://www.healthcheckusa.com/Thyroid-Panel-II-with-TSH/46938/

And let me add one more snort of disdain at “Mild Hypothyroidism”

I would laugh my ass off if it weren’t so damn depressing.

I bet she’s got NO T3 to work with and is in fact VERY SICK.

Not being able to stop gainining weight NO MATTER what is very sick. HAVING your hair FALL OUT is very sick. gawd I get so damn disgusted with this bullshit of alleged doctoring in this country. I get fooo-reeee-ussss.

oh!

And tell her to get her VIT D and Feritin/full Iron panel checked.

Mine are very very low(even though my all knowing Dr, says its “NORMAL,” because its within range)

throws temper tantrum

Yeah, that’s the big thing that you need to realize - normal doesn’t mean shit when you don’t feel normal.