newbie

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

My name is Jenn and I live in Lubbock. I have been diagnoised with

having hypothyroidism with in the past couple of years. I joined an

infertility group and one of the girls in there asked if I was part

of a thyroid disorder group...she said her's was really helpful.

Hints why I'm here. I have a question about meds. My doc (Lum)

started me on Synthroid with no success so after changing the dosage

several times he switched me to Cytomel. I don't seem to come

accross many people who are on it especially at my dosage. I take

5mcg 3 times a day and my doc wants to up it to 4 times a day. It

seems to be doing okay but I'm not sure that I would be able to tell

the difference either way. It's been a long time since I have

really felt good. I'm going to go and get a copy of my last labs so

that maybe someone can help me sort through them. Any help would be

great. Also as far as getting meds I started going to Sams. You

don't have to be a member to go to their pharmacy and my Cytomel was

actually cheaper to get it there than to use my insurance...I think

they take insurance too but I'm not sure. Just a thought...it's

could never hurt to call and ask. Talk to you all soon.

Jenn

[Guest guest]

I'm glad to hear that there is nothing unusual about the dosage...my

mom of course thought it sounded like a lot so I figured any one

that had first hand experience or knowledge would be able to help.

All he has prescribed me is Cytomel, I don't feel like it's helping

very much at all but he said that it has changed my levels. I don't

know for sure. I'll send my labs when I get them. Thanks for the

help and the welcome.

Jenn

[Guest guest]

There could be a few things happening. first Synthroid is only one

ot the 7 thyroid hormones that the healthy thryoid makes. It is the

thyroid hormone T4. T4 is relatively inactive and must be converted

by the body to the other thyroid hormones. T3 and T2 are the most

metabolically active thyroid hormones that do the most to regulate

energy in the body. Many people have a problem converting T4 to

these other hormones and therefore do not get much benifit from

Synthroid. The other thryoid hormones are important in estrogen

function and hormone status of the other hormones, such as

progesterone and testosterone. T3, and T2 work to regulate how

estrogen works in the body and estrogen receptor density.

Armour thyroid, a natural thryoid, contains all the thryoid hormones

that the thyroid makes and is in close to the proper proportions for

humans. This might work better for you to get your hormone status

right. If hypothyroidism is not properly treated, estrogen goes way

too high and progesterone is depleted. The effect of this is to

prevent the retaining of the fetus in the uterus. Progesterone in

high levels is needed to keep the pregnancy and for the fetus to get

sufficient oxygen.

The other thing that might be happening is that I suspect your

replacement doses have been way too low. Today, thryoid replacment

doses are 1/3 of what they were before about 1975. this is due to

heavy reliance on the TSH test, which can be useless in people with

pituitary dysfunction (about 40% of thyroid patients) and auto-

immune thryoid disease. In both cases, measuring TSH very often will

not give an accurate reflection of true thyroid status. It would be

much better to measure Free T3 and Free T4. 5 mcg of cytomel 4 times

a day is not very much. I was on all T3 replacement (Cytomel)and I

used 90 mcg a day. It took this much to get my metabolic rate and

body temperatures up to the proper level. This is actually a common

dose for those for all T3 replacement and is at the low end of

average. All T3 can also interfere with fertility in my opinion.

This is because it pushes the body toward more androgen production.

Finally, The other thing that could be interfering with fertility is

that your adrenal output is too low. Adrenal fatigue or hypofunction

is very common in hypothryoidism and if you are undertreated for

your thyroid condition, then adrenal outpout will be low. The

adrenals are affected by thyroid status. If thyroid is low, adrenal

output is also low. I would really recommend that you read

McK Jefferies book " Safe Uses of Cortisol " . In it he discusses many

case histories of infertility and thyroid and adrenal deficiency.

You might greatly benifit from low dose cortisol treatment. Cortisol

and the other adrenal hormones are crucial to proper reproductive

cycling and hormone balance needed for pregnancy. When adrenal ouput

is low, cycles can be nonexistant or very irratic, DHEA,

progesterone, estradiol, testosterone, blood sugar and many other

hormonal conditions are affected. Blood sugar can go too low for a

good pregnancy.

Have you ever tried using your temperature to adjust your thryoid

dose? This is an excellent way to get a dose that gets your

metabolic rate up to the proper level. I would suggest that you

switch to Armour thyroid and slowly adjust your dose up every two

weeks to a month untill your body temperatures average 98.6. Body

temperature is a measure of metabolic rate, which is controlled by

thryoid and adrenal output. To read how to do this go to Dr. Rind's

page at: http://www.drrind.com/tempgraph.asp If it were me, I would

also add 20 mg of cortisol a day, taken 4 times a day in even doses.

The body makes 35 to 40 mg a day, so you cannot overdose on 20.

Anything that you take less than 40 your own adrenals will drop by

that amount if needed to keep blood levels proper. Read Jeffries

book to see how to do this and his discussion on pregnancy and low

dose cortisol. The average final dose of Armour medication for most

people to get relief from symptoms is 3-5 grains. The healthy

thryoid makes 4-1/2 to 5 grains Armour equivlelent a day or 333 mcg

to 370 mcg of Synthroid equivlelent and day. In the older studies

done with Synthroid, which was new at the time, they found that it

took 300 to 400 mcg of Synthroid for patients to get relief from

hypothryoid symptoms. This totally supressed TSH. This is because

synthroid results in high levels of T4 in the blood to get proper

levels of T3. T4 is very suppressive of TSH. Later is was decided

that patient feelings about their status was not right and that the

TSH test reflected the real truth. Then doses dropped to 1/3 of what

they are today.

You can get cortisol in IsoCort, an over the counter medication,

that contains 2.5mg of cortisol per pellet, or you can order

Nutri+Meds adrenal. I do not know the dose. You could also go to

http://thyroid.about.com/ and look through the list of top docs to

find one that prescribes Armour or go to the Armour site and find a

doc. http://www.armourthyroid.com/. You might also consider using a

D.O. instead of an endocrinologist. These are doctors that tend to

use natural hormone replacements and to test hormone levels mor

thoroughly. You can also treat yourself for you thyroid condition

using temperature and symptoms by ordering Armour from pharmacies

outside the country. Many of the top docs use low dose cortisol

replacement if neccessary.

Other older studies looking at pregnancy and low thryoid have found

that it is better for the mother to be a little hyperthryoid than

hyothryoid. Hypothyroidism is bad for the development of the fetus

and greatly increases risk of miscarriage. Whereas mild

hyperthryoidism does not seem to be harmful.

Tish