Suspected Hypothyroidism

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

I’ve been reading through a bunch of these posts and stickies and am thinking I may have an underactive thyroid. I am a 26y/o male, I am often very cold in my hands and feet, have tested low on my waking axillary and oral temperature and have always had a problem losing weight. I have always been a “chubby” kid but have been able to keep my body comp in line with high levels of exercise and a really close monitor on my diet. I am scheduled for a thyroid panel (fT3/4/TSH) Thursday along with fT/TT/PSA simply because it came with the panel I ordered.

I would just like to finally figure out if it’s just genetics, a curse (haha), or real hormonal issues that have always made it super easy for me to blow up and unbelievably hard to cut down. I misplaced my numbers for the axillary temps but I was consistently (10 days) below the axillary temp norms by roughly 2 degrees from what I remember. I have just recently started morning oral temp and the past two days have been 96.4, with a reading of 96.5 at 1:30 PM. I know I probably will need more labs but for now I am starting here due to financial reasons. Thanks for any replies and for the multitude of previous posts; I have learned a ton in the past few days.

2

it sounds like you are on the right path and you are doing the best thing which is to get the right blood tests.

post the results and then we can help a lot more.

3

Should outline everything including labs. I would suggests talking with a physician.

4

This morning, my oral temp was 96.1 and I took it 3 times just to make sure (95.9/96.1/96.1)!

5

You also have to determine that the thermometer is not part of the problem.

What is your iodine intake?

6

The temps are consistent with 2 thermometers and this is a brand new one I purchased this week. My iodine intake is nil, so I am adding that in starting today. I have never been a big salt eater, but did add it more consistently to my drinks after summer runs and lots of sweat. I actually ran out and never replaced it, however, symptoms have been like this for much longer. I only eat seafood once a week or so.

7

You are defintely on the right track.
I be looking at vitamin D deficeincy , urinary iodine levels and what is potential cause of thyroid hypofunction.
When regulating body temperatures there are several factors and energy systems that need to be properly examined not just thyroid, or adrenals
Get with a qualified health professional who specializes in thyroid, adrenal, and chronic faigue syndrome.

8

Thanks for the info, I have been consistently supplementing with at least 4-6000IU of Vit D and I also live in FL, so I typically get a decent amount of sun. Iodine is definitely a biggie, because from what I can tell, I get none in my diet or supplements. I’m going for labs tomorrow, I will keep you guys updated. Thank you for all the info already.

MD

as a note, I have began supplementing with 150mcg Iodine in liquid form and am awaiting lab test results

9

My results just came back in:

Testosterone, Serum 507ng/dL (280-800)
Free Test, Direct 12.2 pg/mL (9.3-26.5)

TSH - 2.49 uIU/mL (0.450-4.50)

Free T3 - 2.8pg/mL (2.0-4.4)

Free T4 - 1.08ng/dL (0.82-1.77)

I am curious as to what you guys think. I also have been supplementing with 150-300mcg of liquid iodine (kelp) but my waking temp in still 96.4. I did notice it being higher Saturday morning and Sunday morning (97.4 and 97.2) possibly from excess food. I’m not really sure how to correlate that. My T3 seems to be a little on the low side which is what I kind of expected but is it really low enough to warrant treatment with meds?

Thanks, MD

10

If you increased T4, T3 would follow, both are a bit low, and TSH would come down.

Your waking temps indicate a problem What are you afternoon temps?

You can wait to see if the iodine helps and perhaps you feel better and warm up.

Read the symptoms:

11

Afternoon temps rarely break 97.2-4. Just did it right now and was 96.9. I am roughly familiar with the symptoms listed and the ones that jump out at me are:

Cold intolerance
Depression - very mild but creeps up a bit during the winter months (even in FL/supplementing with Vit D3)
Weight gain and water retention - super easy if my diet isn’t 90-100% clean
Bradycardia - I also train endurance sports/jiu jitsu/weight train, so not sure if its that
Low basal body temp - what lead me here
Irritability and mood instability - thought that was just me
Gynecomastia - have always have fat storage problems in the chest

So would the increase in T4 require synthroid or the like, or would I have to get armour etc, to hit it all?

Thanks, MD

12

Your T3 seems to be in-line with your T4 levels, so perhaps T4 alone might work. But sometimes this really is wrong for some and T4 alone can be a disaster that most docs do not understand. Armour should work well in almost all cases, however, it has had potency problems and those affected who have tried Nature ? Thyroid have done much better on that. A synthetic T4+T3 product should be good too.

Thyroid hormone management can be quite complex/difficult for some.

When dosing these things, normalization of TSH and body temps are expected and these can guide dosing. Labs are very useful, but interpretation of numbers via statistical norms does not address one’s own biology.

If lab numbers are mid scale and symptoms persist, one can then suspect rT3 interference, blocking the action of one’s fT3. Low ferritin can also interfere with the ability of the cells to use T3. If cortisol is low, one can expect to find elevated rT3. So there are three other things that can be checked with lab work. Now you can see how this gets difficult and a bit much for the simplistic approach of many doctors.

Fixing rT3 also has complexities. And if one has been struggling to loose weight because of low thyroid levels, extreme weight loss diet attempts can lead to elevated rT3 which makes things worse, not better. Note that when one has elevated rT3, treatment with T4 or T4+T3 can increase rT3, making things worse. The root cause of the elevated tT3 needs to be addressed and T3 only needs to be used in the interim.

If one assumes that you should be medicated, one can take a simple approach to this and just do a trial dose to see if that improves things. If so, then you are motivated to go down that road and do further labs to improve the management of the condition. Some do advocate doing the other labs at the outset, but some docs or care management systems might not be helpful.

Given your symptoms, I think that you should aggressively pursue treatment. This then changes the focus to concerns about doctors and thyroid med options.

If this is confusing, it should be.

13

have you checked out stopthethyroidmadness.com? they have some great info on thyroid treatments and adrenal issues you should be aware of.

14

[quote]PureChance wrote:
have you checked out stopthethyroidmadness.com? they have some great info on thyroid treatments and adrenal issues you should be aware of.[/quote]

Yes, I have been reading the site and that is why I was asking which med I should shoot for first. Thanks again, KS and Purechance, for laying it down. I see what your saying and although confusing to a degree, it all makes sense the more I read. My circumstance is something I have learned to deal with for the past 10 years or so. My pursuit is honestly to make life easier, stop worrying about the details, and finally feel normal. I know it is not a quick and easy process but I am willing to start with your advice on the compounding pharmacy. I would LOVE to find a doc I could go to and discuss options openly. So, from here, I will seek out a compounding pharmacy’s referral for a doc who is willing to prescribe armour to give it a run. If there are no changes, then I will start to explore other options and labs. Based on all the reading and my symptoms, the biggest being cold intolerance and temperature, I am hoping/thinking that my issue is primarily subclinical hypo. We’ll see how it goes!

15

resurrection:

Plain English please?

I know I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and I could use some help. I need to know what kinds of foods and supplements to avoid. I know I need to avoid calcium and soy. Does that mean I need to cut down on whey? That would suck.

What about fish oils and EFA’s?

My thyroid hormones were “off the chart” according to my doc and he started me on 50mcg of levothyroxin and I’m gonna get another test in about 6 weeks to see where I’m at.

Much appreciation in advance.

16

[quote]admbaum wrote:
resurrection:

Plain English please?

I know I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism and I could use some help. I need to know what kinds of foods and supplements to avoid. I know I need to avoid calcium and soy. Does that mean I need to cut down on whey? That would suck.

What about fish oils and EFA’s?

My thyroid hormones were “off the chart” according to my doc and he started me on 50mcg of levothyroxin and I’m gonna get another test in about 6 weeks to see where I’m at.

Much appreciation in advance.

[/quote]

Start your own case thread instead of jacking this one. Post your blood work and background (template is in the Advice for New Guys stickey). Hopefully you are an easy to fix case and just require thyroid hormones and you will be on your way. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to get a lot of those here.