TSH 1.5 causes Weight Gain
Posted , 2 users are following.
After I had my thyroid surgically removed 4 mo ths ago my TSH reached 20 then 15 then 10, 5 and now 1.5 which ia optimal.
I noticed losing weight and luck of energy while the TSH was high and my weight keeps increasing while the TSH is optimal. I take Levothyroxine 175 mcg.
(When I had hyperthyroidism my TSH was 0 and lost weight but with Methimazole my TSH went up to 1.27 and I started putting weight on)
Anyone else experienced the same ?
1 like, 11 replies
MtViewCatherine Canader
Posted
Hi Canader, if I understand it right, your thyroid was removed because you were hyperthyroid? If this is the case, once your thyroid is removed, you're hypothyroid. So that would be a bit of a shock, I'd imagine.
First, there's a three month lag time in regulating the thyroid. Testing prior to the three months can be helpful as a guideline for meds, but really, you'll know better at the full three months.
TSH is thyroid stimulating hormone. It's produced in the brain and tells the thyroid how much thyroxin to produce. TSH is used a a diagnostic because as the body's thyroxin levels drop, the need for thyroxin increases, so the brain makes more TSH in the hopes of stimulating the thyroid to produce more thyroxin.
Of course, this feedback loop is now interrupted with the loss of your thyroid gland and you take the meds instead.
Going back to prior to surgery, you had low TSH. Then after surgery, very high TSH along with hypothyroidism. That would indicate your body was sending a TSH signal to make produce lots of thyroxin. Were you diagnosed with Grave's disease? What was the reason for thyroid removal?
In in the end, you've gone from hyperthyroid to a hypothyroid condition, brought to normal with meds. So, my guess is that going from hyperthyroid to normal would make you causes a weight gain as your metabolism gets back to normal. This would be pretty normal.
ihavenonickname Canader
Posted
TSH 0.0 undetectable.. hyper
TSH 40 hypo
Where you should be depends upon the reason you lost your thyroid.
I lost mine to cancer. Therefore my TSH must be kept at less than 0.05 or less but detectable. This is severely hyperthyroidic, necessary because I had cancer. I also went through full body radiation.
kind regards
judith
Canader ihavenonickname
Posted
I had Basedow Hyper. The reason I had to have it removed was because the drug "Methimazole" was not successful at keeping my thyroid hormones stable and I could not take it forever. But many here say that with higher TSH they see weight gain. I saw weight loss instead. The only time I see weight gain is when I am at the optimal TSH range 1-1.5.
MtViewCatherine Canader
Posted
TSH levels only tell us how our brain is responding. It tells nothing about the effectiveness of quality if thyroxin,
With the meds, my TSH was always zeroed out at the right dose, in order to get the T3/T4 in e right ranges. I figured it had to do with how hypothyroidism presented. Prior to meds, my TSH was never very high, though my thyroid levels were hypo, and symptoms were hypo, with high antibodies and high rT3.
Also, the synthetic meds never really worked right for me. And the levels were always wonky, I gained massive amounts of weight on the levo, plus water retention, fibromialgia and severe rhematiod arthritis, brittle bones, kidney and liver problems, worsened hypo symotoms and enlarged thyroid cysts as side effects while on the synthetic levo. I basically had the hypo symptoms plus all the side effects. This medication seemed to only shift blood results, didn't seem to work in the body.
So, from my experience, I'd ask, how do you feel? How are your T4, T3 and antibody levels? Is it real weight gain, or water retention?
ihavenonickname MtViewCatherine
Posted
I take Synthroid 125 mcg daily and Cytomel 10 mcg daily...I need both T3 and T4
And with a TSH of 0.01 I am gaining
hugs
judith
MtViewCatherine ihavenonickname
Posted
Yes. My TSH was undetectable on the levo and I was gaining weight like crazy. There it is. What does that say? Levo suppresses the TSH, which therefore, suppresses our body's thyroid production. But the levo doesn't seem to replace the thyroxin. If it did, we wouldn't all be gaining weight like crazy... Resulting in worse hypo than we started with. Conclusion: the portion of the thyroxin that feeds back to the brain is functional on the synthetic levo. The portion of the levo that allows it to connect to other cells, is not biologically active.
ihavenonickname MtViewCatherine
Posted
MtViewCatherine ihavenonickname
Posted
Good luck with your Endo.
ihavenonickname MtViewCatherine
Posted
Without a thyroid our bodies can not live...rather a catch 22 situation.
In the USA endocrinologist are allowed to prescribe name brands manufactured without tolerances for those of us who are athyroidic.
Personally, I have never used these generics so I can not speak from experience.
Mayeach of you
MtViewCatherine ihavenonickname
Posted
Everything I've read is that even name brands are allowed +/- 10% from label dose, in the US. This complicates dosing enormously because you can get as much as 20% difference between lots. This is chaos for thyroid patients.
ihavenonickname Canader
Posted
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of generic levothyroxine made by a number of different pharmaceutical companies. The various brand name and generic tablets of levothyroxine may differ in how much levothyroxine they contain, how much of the levothyroxine is absorbed into your body, and how much levothyroxine circulates in your body.
This is why my endocrinologist insists I only take synthroid that is less than 9 months old because the potency decreases with time.
kind regards
judith