What hypothyroid symptoms have you experienced?

I'm on my 7th week of treatment. As you may know, I'm on Methimazole 30mg/day. I've been on that dose from the beginning of my treatment. In a couple of days I will be getting labs and then I'll see my Endo next week.

Today I'm feeling very tired, so I guess I need to start documenting my symptoms. Up to right now I've been going through a lot of changes from hyper to hopefully normal. Once I got passed the very hyper sensations, I've been feeling well with hot flashes through out the day and night but besides that not too many problems. My sleep has been different. I've been having nightmares and I wake up feeling sad. The sadness quickly goes away but I know it is because of my dreams, which some times I don't remember. Last night was about the loss of a very dear pet.

So, since I will start paying attention as to what might come up next, my question is, what hypothyroid symptoms have you experienced?

Thank you for sharing,
Caro

Hello - Every patient is different, but common symptoms of hypo can include fatigue, joint pain, unexplained weight gain, constipation, dry skin, cold intolerance, and slow pulse.

If you feel these symptoms coming on, definitely contact your doctor's office to get an updated set of labs done.

Hello Kimberly,

Thank you for your reply.

I'm not experiencing any of the common symptoms but I have been feeling tired lately. I guess that could be considered a symptom but besides that I'm not experiencing any of the “common symptoms”.

My sleep is being affected by my dreams. Before I got sick, I used to be able to sleep so good without nightmares, etc. Now, I wake up feeling sad from the dreams that I've been having. I wonder if it is the medication or a symptom.

I'm still feeling hot a lot of the time so a little bit of cold intolerance would be welcome.

My pulse is within 60-78 w/ the beta blocker and so when it comes to that I feel fine. I'm happy it is finally that low b/c when all this started my HR was going between 124-114. It was awful.

My labs are tomorrow. Just like you recommended before, I'm getting them done before my appt next week I'm so looking forward to finding out how I'm doing.

Did you ever experience hypo symptoms? Or where you able to achieve a level that was comfortable w/o having your #s fall low?

Thank you for sharing. Knowing that we are all different I would like to know what symptoms others have experienced. No one else is sharing though. Being that this is a GD (HyperT) forum, this might be the wrong place to ask.

Caro

Caro,

I always felt energized before Graves. But I have noticed that I feel tired when I'm hypER or hypO. Tired hypER because my body was running at 150% and it was wearing me out. I wasn't sleeping well, but I was always tired. Basically if you look at a list of possible Graves disease/hyperthyroidism symptoms on a medical website, I had every single one of them for about six months leading up to my diagnosis.

Ever since I've been hypO, I have been tired but can sleep ridiculous amounts, and sleep well. I compare it to how I feel when I have a bad cold or the flu - when I can sleep all day, wake up to take a shower and eat some soup around dinnertime, and then go back to bed for another 8-10 hours with no problems sleeping. That's how I feel all the time lately being hypO. In between hypER and hypO, when I was somewhat regulated on PTU and then after RAI while I was slowing falling from hypER to euthyroid and eventually hypO, I felt great. I had energy, was working out really hard five days a week with a personal trainer, and getting maybe 6-7 hours of sleep a night, but it was good, sound sleep.

My other hypO symptoms were significant weight gain, heavier periods, but unfortunately, no cold intolerance - like you I am always hot and was really looking forward to feeling cold for once, but no such luck. I also felt weak, but in a different way than I did when I was diagnosed. I guess a lot of the symptoms are similar, but opposite. Does that make sense? Probably not, but it's been a long day on little sleep - I blame the late-night Olympics coverage.

Fatigue can be caused by any number of things. We are quick to blame every symptom on Graves, especially in the beginning. See what your labs say. If you are on either side of normal, fatigue is to be expected. But if your labs are normal and fatigue is your only out-of-the-ordinary thing going on, you might see your primary care physician to rule out other issues. Try some light yoga, meditation, soothing music before bed. You can research sleep pollution - things like electronics in your bedroom, light filtering in the windows, doing anything that stimulates the brain or digestive system within a few hours of going to bed, etc.

Carito71
Did you ever experience hypo symptoms? Or where you able to achieve a level that was comfortable w/o having your #s fall low?

Hello - I never went officially hypo, but my T3/T4 were scraping the bottom of the “normal” range a few weeks after I started treatment. That's been almost 5 years ago, but the biggest symptom I remember was *extreme* fatigue.

Hope this helps!

Hello gatorgirly,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I have felt like you described. Not now, but in the past. Very heavy periods and extremely exhausted. I remember sleeping one whole day once like if I was in a coma. It was scary. I have always needed 10 hours of sleep a night to feel good the next day. When I became hypER I too felt like you describe. Mainly b/c as you said, my body was going a 1000 miles an hour. Now I just feel tired, like I can take a 2 hour nap in the afternoons. I get busy in the day and my energy doesn't last into the afternoon.

I got my labs done today so hopefully I get my results tomorrow.

You are so right about sleep pollution. Fortunately, my bedroom is sleep pollution free. When we moved to our house my husband and I decided to make it so. Blinds and double curtains, no electronic devices expect for alarm, cold temp (this of course doesn't seem to be helping me though … my husband will be freezing to death and I'll be extremely hot), nice clean sheets, tempupedic mattress and pillows, dimming of lights through out the house before bed time, nice bath, nice book, …. I have never had problems with my sleep until now with the nightmares that wake me up abruptly and feeling sad. The worst part is that I don't even remember them. I just know I've had one b/c of how I'm feeling when I wake up. One night I even woke up crying. I need to tell my Endo about this next week.

We do tend to think everything that happens to us is GD related, don't we? Even our Drs. do this at times. I too I'm guilty of “olympics watching” late at night I think I need to start going to bed a little bit early and taking power naps in the afternoon. Maybe that will help ….

Thank you for your response. It helps to know that I'm not alone in all this. Hope you come out of hypO soon




Hello Kimberly … thank you. It sure helps. Knowing that it can happen even when we are in the normal range is good to know. We'll see what my labs say tomorrow



Caro

Hi Caro,
Sorry to hear about your interrupted sleep patterns. Although I am still not officially Hypo, I have suffered from heat and cold intolerance right from day one of my journey (My Endo told me that these reactions weren't really a good indication of either Hyper or Hypo and that weight changes were a better indication). The reaction to heat was a lot easier to deal with. I would not wish the cold intolerance on any one. It is currently winter here in Australia at the moment and although it doesn't snow here, in the hills area where I live we do have a few cold mornings (hose freezes, ice on the windscreen etc). I have never ever felt the cold like this winter. As I type this at work, it is currently 10.30am and I am freezing, rugged up in thermal socks, gloves, scarf and hat and I can feel the cold right down to my bones and have the constant feeling of being cold for the whole day. I am surprised by how much the feeling of being cold stays with me for the whole day. My husband has started calling me “iceblock” - no matter how many jumpers or blankets or how close I sit to the heater, my hands and feet just don't warm up (I have even been woken through the night because my nose was cold). I go to bed and he touches my feet and he can't believe how cold I am. At least in the warmer weather, I can have a shower or turn the fan or air conditioner on to cool down, never thought I would say it - but bring on summer.
Take care
Cheers, hugs and kisses
Debbie

Hello Debbie,

It is good to read you!

It sounds like we need to swap places for a little while. It is super hot here and on top of that I'm feeling extremely hot even in the cold air conditioner. I wonder if our sensitivities come from what is going on with the weather. It is winter there and you are freezing and it is summer here and I'm burning up. I stick my head in the freezer at times. My husband will be walking around with a fleece blanket on and I'll be in my shorts and tank top. At night I'll be off the covers and he'll have 2 blankets on plus the fleece blanket. I feel sorry for him but I'm burning up I think … he can keep adding blankets but I can't keep taking stuff off I'm the happiest at the grocery store in the frozen section. At work they keep it very cold … thank God!!!!!! At the house when I start to feel really hot sometimes I just lay on the cold floor to cool down. There is just so much I can lower the air conditioner, right? Sometimes at night I even sleep with an ice pack. It has gotten that crazy. I do have to say though that last night I actually felt a little bit cold. I was so excited about it. I so want the winter to get here. It doesn't snow here but we do have to use the heater. Thinking it thoroughly, maybe the summer is better b/c I can just turn the air conditioner, something that I will not be able to do in the winter when everyone wants to feel warmer.

Did your Endo tell you why heat/cold intolerances were not a really good indication?

I hope you feel warmer soon. Send me a little bit of winter, will you?

Smiles,
Caro

Hi Caro,
My Endo relies more on labs than any thing else. He always orders tests for my Liver, Clacium levels, White Blood Cell Count together with Free T3, T4, TSH, TRAb Thyroglobulin Ab and Thyroid peroxidise Ab. I was in severe Thyrotoxicosis when I was first diagnosed and one of the worst cases (in relation to my levels) that he or any of the other Medical professionals involved in my treatment had ever seen or treated. In my case the intolerance to both hot and cold has been with me the whole way so nothing had really changed. The outside weather obviously has something to do with it though. The changes to my hair (thinning and slight hair loss together with thinning of my eyebrows) has been happening since I was diagnosed and no real pattern with weight loss or weight gain has really been established since beginning treatment.
Cheers
Debbie

Hi Caro

I didn't officially become hyPO but I was close which was why my endo lowered my Methi dosage at that time. I was really cold (when I was hypeR I was super sweaty and hot all the time). I felt like I was dragging, even more tired when I was hypeR. My heart wasn't beating a gazillion miles a minute thanks to the meds with beta blocker but I was getting super fat and my menstrual cycle was killer 7 days very heavy plus. And I was a crybaby…bigtime…watching pet food commercials made me cry, looking in the mirror, tears….jumping on the scale… wailing….lol. My endo said that was a sign I was “getting better.” I think what she meant was that I was out of the HypeR danger zone (your periods are much lighter and shorter) but it still sucked. After decreasing my doasage I was feeling a lot better, had more energy and now I am able to do a bit of Yoga and walking, etc. so that helps too. Waiting to reach euthyroid status one day…someday….

Good luck with your labs. Watching them is KEY. keep a records and keep us posted.