Posted , 111 users are following.
Hi, I am 32 and have just been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid. Been put on 50 mg but after about a week starting to get muscle aches, upset stomach. Did anyone else experience this? also feel really tired!
10 likes, 194 replies
We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.
sukiart
Posted
day. At first she was very tired and still suffers from this lethargy. Occasionally I have seen her energy pick up but not often. Her abdomen is swollen, especially below the belly button. She complains of tummy upsets
when drinking milk so we have reduced it to one cup a day and have tried soy milk to vary the diet. She
is extremely moody. We are very close and we are friends but sometimes she seems unable to control her
mood. I know this is common for a teenager too just trying to state her symptoms overall. We go for blood
tests every 6 months and then to the specialist who checks her weight, height and asks how she is feeling.
He also checks how much she is taking and has increased her dosage each visit. She often complains of
headache, sore neck and back. She gets overwhelmed at stressful situations very easily - I mean in the
way of sometimes things are busy in life and she seems to shut down and zones out - like she doesn't want
to hear. I have been trusting of the medical approach as I was told she needs this. I won't ever drop her
medication as understand the dangers once the body has learned to respond to the drug (whether that is
good or bad). She has a 11mm lump in her neck which was replaced when she lost part of her thyroid gland.
This is monitored every year by ultrasound - I now ask for the check-up as have been told if it gets larger
there is a chance of cancer developing in the lump which would need to be removed. She complains of
dryness in her throat and gets very depressed about school sometimes. I have taken her to a psychologist to
help support her as she grows. I try to keep her diet as healthy as possible and teach her every day about
the importance to staying as healthy as possible. This includes daily exercise, even if it's slow and at her
pace.
My real concern at the moment is these skin rashes and red welts. She has a 2cm diameter size welt on her
leg which has been there for three years. Slowly getting larger. We had a scraping done by the GP but it was
clear. At first it looked like ring worm - she had two. Now they are coming up everywhere. Mainly on her legs.She may have around 8 welts ranging from 3mm diameter to a 2cm diameter size. They are not itchy but
are raised on her skin. She also has eczema type rashes on the back of her arms. When we went to the
specialist last month, he said the usual - ' do you have any concerns '. I said the welts were a worry. He
said it wouldn't be from thyroxin and to go to a dermatologist. So more tests and I can imagine more drugs.
I felt pushed aside and that he denied what could be a real problem with thyroxin for my daughter's health.
Her skin is overall very beautiful. She does not have one pimple. And she glows. We have tried steroid
creams, bath washes over time, even trying to swim in the sea. Salt baths too. I don't want her to take any
more medications - as then it's like one bandaid to cover another. Does anyone have a recommendation or
have these side effects ? I read a few sites which say red welts and rashes can be a side effect but it's
hard to know what to believe. I worry about what is really going on in her body to cause them and if they
will pass over time.
marey sukiart
Posted
becky25098 sukiart
Posted
becky25098
Posted
sammy777 sukiart
Posted
Hi, I also have had a hemi-thyroidectomy. The histology report showed Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Disease. I have 2 nodules in the remaining thyroid lobe. Taken Eutroxsig for 10 years now, I feel I have declined ever since, you sound similar to myself in terms of lifestyle ie: Healthy food options always and exercise. It came to a head where the unrelenting fatigue can become so debilitating. I understand and feel for your daughter. I can only speak on behalf of myself and not reccomend for anyone else what they should do as one size "does not" nor will it "ever" fit all. That being said, I came across Marc Ryan "Hashimoto's Healing" and finally someone completely got me. I read his book, I knew I was at a stage I had to try something different as I had exhauseted and researched so musch that I had nothing else to try. I found a GP willing to prescribe LDN "low dose naltrexone" as Marc describes it and surpisingly my local chemist (who is also a compounding pharmacist) knew all about LDN and was hearing tremendous feedback from his fibromyalgia patients. That was incentive enough for me, I take 1.5mg of LDN. They don't really know how it works from what I can gather but it puts the autoimmune into can I call it a "remission like state" so that our autoimmune stops attacking the thyroid gland. I use to take 200mcg of Eutroxsig and have had to keep reducing the dose. I am now on only 50mcg and it is looking like I am going to have to reduce again after looking at my last TSH, T4 results. Keep in mind I am certainly not recommending you do as I have, I just felt compelled to share my story. All the best to you and your daughter and God Bless.
barbara98940 sukiart
Posted
I too have rashes though mine are itchy. Mine are due to food allergies and interances. Although I test negative for coeliac now I have cut gluten out completely my ankles are no longer swollen.
It may be if you get her thyroid sorted the welts will go. I was similar to your daughter in that even though I was on thyroxine I still had no energy. Does she have any other hypothyroid symptoms despite being in range in the blood tests? If so she might have a problem converting T4 to T3. She if you can get the doctor to test T4 & T3. Look to see where each is within its range - they should both be about the middle, or both be near the top, or both be near he bottom. I became intolerant to maize starch and it's in all the levothyroxine tablets. So I switched to a natural desiccated thyroid. But before starting it, I stopped taking thyroxine for 10 days and then had a blood test. This gave me a baseline view if my thyroid hormone levels. My T4 was mid range and my T3 was below range. As there was enough T4 available to convert my T3 level should also have been in range. So I concluded I wasn't converting g T4 to T3 very well. This is where a natural desiccated thyroid (NDT) comes in really useful because it gives all the hormones our thyroid produces: T4, T3, T2, T1 and calcitonin. There are two sorts of NDT . Porcine (from pig) and bovine (from cow). The bovine one has T4 and T3 levels closer to humans than the porcine one. I tried two prescription based porcine NDTs but they made me swell up. A lot if people get on well with them though. In case you don't know, levothyroxine is T4 and the body has to convert it to T3. If ones body usbt doing this conversion very well, the T4 stays in your bloodstream giving erroneously high results I'm the blood tests but you'll still be having hypothyroid symptoms. Does this describe your daughter? Still cold, strughling with weight, no energy, sleep and not wake refreshed, missing outer portion of eyebrows (only when been hypothyroid for a while), hair dry and falling out, nails soft? She may not have to have all these symptoms, but the fatigue, cold and hair loss are common ones. Ask for her vitamin and mineral kevels to be checked. People with hypothyroidism often don't metabolise their food properly to get the nutrients out if it so become deficent. The key ones to check are: Ferritin (studies show that it needs to be 70+ to be able to process/thyroxine, even though the lower limit is 5), iron, vitamin B12, folate, vitamin D. 200mcg selenium is needed daily for good thyroid health. Stomach pains may well be milk allergy/intolerance especially if accompanied by bloating and/or diarrhoea. Talk to your daughter and see if she us willing to try a strict diet of chicken and vegetables, no gluten or milk, for a week and see if the welts improve. If so, you'll know it's something she's eating. It may of course be an intolerance to the tablets. Its worth trying a different brand or switching to NDT. WP Thyroid is a prescription NDT that has the least fillers in. I'm on ThyroGold which I get over the internet without a prescription (not as dodgy as it sounds! It was made by a dictir for his wife and she still manufactures and sells it so others can benefit like she has). I'm in UK but can still get it from America. Americans don't have to pay VAT and £6.50 customs charge so it is cheaper for them. One more thing. Hypothyroidism can run in families. Have you been tested for it?
This epic message should at least give you some ideas of things to try.
barbara98940
Posted
sammy777 barbara98940
Posted
rachel84955
Posted
I've been taking Levothyroxine for about 6 years now and at first it really helped. I don't feel the cold like I used to, and am not as tired all the time, but I have other symptons, which I assume are related to the drugs I take. I suffer from stomach cramps, bloating, trapped wind, and seem to fluctuate between constipation and diarrohea, although I can't be sure which, if any, of these problems are caused by the levothyroxine, as it may be the esomeprezole (nexium) that I also have to take daily.
The most recent side-effect I have noticed is that I feel absolutely ravenous in the mornings - and I wondered if it might be the effect of the thyroxine which I take as soon as I wake up at 6am. I tend to spend the whole morning stuffing my face and then don't want to eat in the evening.
Does anybody else feel really hungry after taking their tablets?
designergirl12
Posted
I have read all these posts and found them extremely surprising! I fell for those of you who are having such difficulties, and hope things work out.
I have been on Levothyroxine 200mg for about four/ five years. Initially a practice nurse put me on 25mg due to the freezing feet I had at night which went into serious cramps. She then increased it to a 100mg and my heart beat went throughout the roof. I saw another doctor and he went ballistic saying I should not have been on it at all.
Slowly I have been increased to 200mg until about four months ago when my current doc is desperately trying to get me to slower dose. She put me on 125 and I have taken it down to 100 on my own. I get mild chills in my feet but what is my most concern is the fact that I have read that long term usage doubles the risk of getting liver cancer, Now my doc always gets a liver function test when doing bloods for Thyroid.
And this is what scares me because I have fatty live, she won't tell me the % , saying they don't do that anyway, I have a 13mm gallstone and chronic Divertculosis. I am convinced that this is all due to Levothyroxine!
It all came one after the other within a short time of going of Thyroxine.
I want to ask my doc (who thinks I am a pain in the proverbial,)
What effect does Levothyroxine have on my liver?
Is there an alternative in the UK for Levo..?
Is there a link between liver cancer after long term use of Levo?
Is there a link between cardio and bone density probs on Levo?
If anyone has any thoughts on what else I should ask please let me know.
I am 60 , relatively fit and 12 stone 1 lb and 5 feet three inches. I used to be 5'5" when I was younger. My cholesterol is 5.1
I am just out of a gallbladder attack after being stupid at Christmas and eating a box of chocolates , I have very little pain from the DD but my motions are all over the place, not literally!
My thyroxine just leaves me with mildly cold feet but I am rarely tired.
I feel quite bitter that I have ended up like this, I feel life has dealt me with a bad hand and I get angry. I also am fighting to stay off the packet of Setraline the doctor wanted to give me. My liver is going through enough as it is.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
barbara98940 designergirl12
Posted
Diverticulitis benefits from drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day. Fatty liver can be improved by not drinking alcohol and by improving diet as far as far I'm aware. Though there are other causes. Its worth doing a trial of no processed food to see if that helps (e.g. no sweets, biscuits,puddings, cakes, or cook/chill ready meals (due to preservatives) ones from a freezer are better.
Hazydays
Posted
Teeteee
Posted
Teeteee
Posted
glynisrose
Posted