Levothyroxine

Hi Mar. The dilemma of early diagnosis a d treatment vs delayed diagnosis is a problem. I believe that I’ve been hypothyroid my whole life, possibly as early as age 9. Though I was diagnosed with a cyst on my thyroid in my early 30s and wasn’t diagnosed with hypothyroid and treated until my late 40s. (Ridiculous since the formation of a cyst is caused by hypothyroid.) So even with the large cyst,  I  was not given a diagnosis of hypothyroid disease, was not tested for anything other than TSH, was not sent to an endocrinologist, and was not treated for nearly 20 years afetr the cyst was found.

Initially, I was very angry at not having been diagnosed and treated. I thought, wow, I’ve spent my whole life dieting and self loathing because I could never keep the weight off,  blaming myself, believing it was lack of self control, listening to peoples’ ‘kind lies’ “you aren’t fat “.  I struggled with exhaustion and spent so much if my energy through my entertire life, motivating myself to override  the exhaustion, and dieting. As a teen, I spent many years in a sport that was judged, so weight was very important.  I’ve wondered how much more I could have accomplished if my energy had been focused on creating the life I wanted.

 The burden of thyroid disease affected my life even as an infant, as my mother has suffered from hypothyroid disease her entire life and was not able to get proper treatment until she was in her 80s. And the meds never worked for her either. She suffered her entire life from mental illness, which I believe thyroid disease contributed to greatly.  Mental illness doesn't go away on its own after a lifeltime. But once I switched her to the Thyrogold, I can tell you, there was a change in her personality, I never dared to hope was possible.

For me... When I finally got a diagnosis and medication, of course I was furious that I wasn't treated decades earlier. However, after reading here and from my experience with meds and tons of research, I’ve come to the conclusion that early detection would have been useless since tgere was no information decades ago on thyroid diet  and supplents, the treatment of the disease does not include any sort if prevention, and the medications are most often more harmful than good.  I feel the levothyroxin actually accellerated my thyroid disease,  caused extensive autoimmune disease and premature aging.

 After my horrible experience with the many thyroid medications, I was able to forgive my mother for her inability to be a parent and her refusal for decades to take thyroid medicine, as it made her ill. She did the right thing not taking meds because she could tell they made her sick. Unfortunately, there wasn’t as much information or access to information a half a century ago, and no alternative treatments, as there are now.

Would I have been better off knowing of my thyroid disease and dealing with the ineffectual medical treatment my whole life and still getting  no help?  Or am I better off struggling with my weight and other thyroid symptoms, overriding the disease by willpower of the mind, and spending all my time and energy dieting, finding nutritional treatment and other less traditional treatments?

After coming full circle, I’m less angry at not being treated and more angry at the utter ridiculousness of the medical treatment that takes advantage of sick people and offers no real treatment and certainly no prevention. I feel the very ethics of medicine are violated, as it seems the rule of “first, do no harm” has been lost.

Truly, this has been an awakening experience.

Mar, you’re right about the high antibodies, brainfog, inflammation and elevated TSH being harmful.  I’d be interested in checking out artickes on thus if you have some good sources.

However, none of the prescription medications are bioidentical, so they can actually cause autoimmune disease. Levothyroxin is known to both worsen and trigger various autoimmune diseases. So it isn't a given that medication is the best treatment for thyroid disease.

The meds actually made my situation far worse in the end. You know, l was really suffering with the thyroud problem. Now, after the meds, I still have the thyroid problem. But now I have a whole mess of other issues that frankly, are scarier than the thyroid disease. I have advanced thyroud disease, which was also worsened by the medication.

I feel like I’ve gone rogue, as I’ve had to find my own solutions. 

To MtViewCatherine:   How long did you take medication for thyroid?    

I think it was 5 years in all on the meds.

What a flippin’ nightmare!

I did for 2 years.   Hoping I have stopped before too much damage.    I stopped on May 14.   So far I feel so much better.   I don’t think that a Med that causes the damage  Levothyroxinne does can in any way be worth the risk of taking it.  Why do they want you to take it to correct one problem and cause half a dozen others?   Why would I want to put my body thru that?   I am a 37 year breast cancer survivor.  When I was going thru menopause, they would not allow me to take hormones to help.  I surely wish you health and happiness.     Thanks.