My Wife, The Medical Anomaly...Help!

Training Bodybuilding
1

This is the damndest thing I’ve ever seen. Something is very wrong with my wife and I’m hoping someone on here can give me some idea of what it might be.

Shortly after we got married, she started gaining some weight even though her diet was the same as it was before we got married. After 20 pounds, she decided to do something about it. She starts riding a recumbent bike for 30 minutes per day, 5 times per week. She was basically sedentary before then. Diet is the same.

The weight keeps coming. We add weight training to the mix. Since she had never lifted before, I had her doing a standard beginners routine (squats or deads, then pull downs or rows, then bench, 5X5, 2-3 times per week). The weight keeps going up.

She also starts showing major hypothyroid symptoms at this point. Another note - stimulants like ephedrine put her to sleep, which is also very odd. She’s tired, intolerant to cold, brittle hair and nails, etc. Sex drive is fine when she’s awake.

She tries Atkins. After the first two weeks, she’s up 10 pounds! She even had the keto breath, so I’m sure she wasn’t cheating.

We go to the doctor, her TSH is borderline low, doc won’t do shit despite telling him all of the above. He recommends Atkins. I recommend pulling his head out of his ass and leave.

So, since she had hypothyroid symptoms, we logically conclude that’s the problem and get some T3 from our friendly neighborhood overseas pharmacy. After a course of T3…NOTHING CHANGES!!! No weight loss, no improvement in any of the symptoms. Nothing.

She gets her bloodwork checked by another doc and guess what? Now TSH is 0.03 and T4 is WAY low (probably due to the T3). But if the stuff worked, why no changes?

We’re going to see an Endo in a couple of weeks, but this is getting ridiculous. I’m completely stumped. Does anyone have any ideas? Please?

2

[quote]adisaac wrote:
This is the damndest thing I’ve ever seen. Something is very wrong with my wife and I’m hoping someone on here can give me some idea of what it might be.

Shortly after we got married, she started gaining some weight even though her diet was the same as it was before we got married. After 20 pounds, she decided to do something about it. She starts riding a recumbent bike for 30 minutes per day, 5 times per week. She was basically sedentary before then. Diet is the same.

The weight keeps coming. We add weight training to the mix. Since she had never lifted before, I had her doing a standard beginners routine (squats or deads, then pull downs or rows, then bench, 5X5, 2-3 times per week). The weight keeps going up.

She also starts showing major hypothyroid symptoms at this point. Another note - stimulants like ephedrine put her to sleep, which is also very odd. She’s tired, intolerant to cold, brittle hair and nails, etc. Sex drive is fine when she’s awake.

She tries Atkins. After the first two weeks, she’s up 10 pounds! She even had the keto breath, so I’m sure she wasn’t cheating.

We go to the doctor, her TSH is borderline low, doc won’t do shit despite telling him all of the above. He recommends Atkins. I recommend pulling his head out of his ass and leave.

So, since she had hypothyroid symptoms, we logically conclude that’s the problem and get some T3 from our friendly neighborhood overseas pharmacy. After a course of T3…NOTHING CHANGES!!! No weight loss, no improvement in any of the symptoms. Nothing.

She gets her bloodwork checked by another doc and guess what? Now TSH is 0.03 and T4 is WAY low (probably due to the T3). But if the stuff worked, why no changes?

We’re going to see an Endo in a couple of weeks, but this is getting ridiculous. I’m completely stumped. Does anyone have any ideas? Please?[/quote]

It’s difficult to say. The very first blood draw should have evaluated T4 and T3 in addition to TSH, so that assessment, even though it was borderline low, does little to help in terms of determining what the potential problem may be.

Now, with the statement about how the T3 you ordered did nothing in terms of improving symptoms, I’d normally then disregard the normal causes of hypothyroidism and quickly move on to a few more select causes. However, the problem there then becomes whether the dosage used was sufficient, as well as whether the product obtained was accurately dosed or even legitimate (although it’s unlikely someone would counterfeit T3, it’s still possible). No offense, but this is why I don’t prefer that people start self medicating when there’s a possible disease state/disorder in question.

If one were absolutely certain that the exogenous T3 did nothing and it was used in adequate amounts, then the problem may actually lie at the level of the target tissue, itself. In other words, there may be a down-regulation of receptor content, a decrease in binding affinity or the problem may lie in some sort of defect or mutation post-receptor which isn’t allowing for proper gene expression. In that last one, it could really be a number of things post-receptor.

But again, there’s a lot of lacking data and yes, the second blood draw should be thrown out as she was using T3. So, with that being said, until you have more information available, it’s difficult to pinpoint things. She does certainly seem to be suffering from hypothyroidism though.

3

Adisaac,

Sorry to hear about your wife’s problem. First off, it would help to know her age, any pertinent medical conditions, etc. Also, what meds does she take? Any birth control pills, anti-depressants, etc., and if so did she either start or change any of them before all her symptoms started? I think you are on the right track by seeing an endocrinologist. I would definitely want a complete hormone profile (thyroid, est/prog, LH/FSH)and an adrenal function work-up (cortisol/aldosterone/DHEA). It also wouldn’t hurt to get a glucose tolerance test.

Also, post some of her diet info and supplement intake and maybe we can help troubleshoot that area as well.
Take care.

Ryan

4

The scope of your wifes problem is far beyond what I, or anyone, can comment on in this forum.

I think you need to see a specialist and have a complete medical exam. The Thyroid could be the problem…who knows?

I am very sorry you are having this problem as I know it must be quite a strain on your poor wife, and you as well.

Best Of Luck, sorry I could not have been more helpful

Zeb

5

Thanks guys for the responses!

Here’s some of the additional info I left out. My wife is 24, 23 when all this wonderful stuff started. She just recently (last week) went on the DEPO shot, but through this whole mess she was not on any kind of birth control. I had that, uh-hem, taken care of myself. She hasn’t been on BC (prior to the depo shot) for at least two years.

We started her on 12.5 mcg of T3 for a week, then up to 25 for three weeks. She got impatient with the lack of results and went up to 50 for a few weeks and then once she told me about the high doses I had her taper back down and she’s now off of it complete.

Cy, I tried to get the first doc to do all three and he refused. He said he’d do a TSH test and I mentioned that it only tells part of the tale and that I’d feel better about getting all three done. He said, “Well, I hang my hat on the TSH.”

We went to an arthritis doctor before going on the T3 course (they suspected my wife had Lupus - she doesn’t) and he at least agreed to test the T4, which was low normal. He also mentioned that DHEA was slightly elevated, but that’s the only other thing he said wasn’t “normal”.

More recently, her gynocologist ran her through a battery of tests (though still not T3 or glucose tolerance) after she complained of the aforementioned symptoms. She noted the suppress TSH and T4 and also noted that her iron was low (she was having some female problems as well, so that’s not a suprise).

Her diet prior to all this was your standard you American female diet - mostly low-fat, lean cuisine type stuff with too little protein and too little good fat. On the times I had her track everything, she was in the 1400-1500 kcal range. She’d done some wild extreme dieting before meeting me, so the screwy metabolism isn’t a shocker.

She’s been off the T3 for a little over a month and we’re seeing the Endo the week after Thanksgiving. Hopefully he/she is capable of thought and decent diagnosis.

Thanks again guys!