Hypothyroid - muscle/ joint pain

[sar123456]

Hi All,

This is a little background .. I am 36 yrs old female.

I am struggling from 2 years almost still I don't know what has happened to me. I started having muscle and joint pains two years back and my TSH jumped to 7 or 8. So the doc prescribed synthroid to me. After struggling for a year with muscle pain joint pain constipation, I somehow convinced my doc to increase dose and was taking 100mcg, my tsh was 0.01 and free t3 & t4 were with in the limits.

Then I stopped my birth control pill. So probs started again. I was put on 1 grain armour for 3 months, it was hell. My monrning used to to pain free and evening it used to start paining through the night. constipation was worst. Then I convinced him to increase armour to 1.5 gr and add 75mcg synthroid. Did not work. then finally he moved me back to full synthroid 150mcg. I was limping with this dose.

Then I incrased the dose to 250 incresaing little little. Now I am feeling good no constipation, liver enzymes improved, no pains. But I feel a lot more thirsty. have some palpitation and chest pain once in a while.

My labs now are

TSh - 0.01 (0.3 to 3.1)
free t3 - 5.5 (4.2 max)
free t4 - 2.68 (same dose after another month is 3.46)  (0.8 to 1.81)
total t3 - 1.58 (0.6 to 1.81)
Thyroid Horm.(T3UP)Bind.Ratio 1.15 (0.8 to 1.2)
Free Thyroxine Index 17.1 (5-12)


My question is, is the body considering this as hyper thyroid. is there any other side effects of taking such a high dose.

I am also palnning to concieve so I am freaking out right now. not sure what I shd do.

Any suggestion, advice will be very helpfull..

I think I am converting to t3 but I need a high t4 level to convert I think but not sure...

Thankyou for helping me get better in advance..

[kevieb]

I am wondering if you have had your cortisol levels checked/  Quite often, when a person raised their thyroid levels--which increases their motabolism--they will initially start to feel good, but then their cortisol levels can't keep up and they start to feel lousy again--and assume it is the armour thyroid medication and will think they can't take it.

There is a natural thyroid medication called NP thyroid, which I take, that is very close to the original formula of armour, which has been through two formula changes.

If you are low in cortisol, it could explain why you felt so crappy taking armour---especially holding it at 1 grain for 3 months--it should be raised 1/2 grain after about 1 month.  Low cortisol could also explain your muscle and joint pain and also heart palpitations.

It is amazing that you don't seem to have symptoms of hyperthyroidism with how high your free T3 and Free T4 is.

My TSH is very similar to yours, but my FT4 is middlis and at last check, my FT3 was slightly elevated--but I did not have symptoms of hypo----I was taking 4 grains of NP thyroid at the time.

My doc has been sick, so I haven't had blood work done recently, but I have raised my NP thyroid to 5 grains---without any symptoms of hyper.

What is your resting heart rate---best to take it first thing in the morning before you get up.  Mine always seems elevated in the day, but when I take it early in the morning, it is around 60-70.

I think there are some tests that can tell how well you are converting FT4 into FT3 and you can also have your reverse FT3 checked--it the ratio of FT3 to reverse FT3 is off it could be the reason for your high levels of FT3.

I don't know a whole lot about that--but they both use the same receptors and if RFT3 is blocking the receptors---you could have a lot of FT3 floating around in your blood that is not usable--which could explain the high levels.

hope some of that made sense---I will read up on my resources again and see for sure what it says----send me a Pm if I forget to get back on here.

[courtney48]

I'm newly dx'd with hypothyroidism so I don't have advice that others can offer, but wonder if perhaps a gynecological endocrinologist might be worth a consult since you are TTC?  

[gimel]

First question is did you take your meds before the blood draw for tests?  If so, that can distort the test results and make them to look higher.

[sar123456]

I take 250mcg of synthroid now. I stopped armour completely. I have consulted two endos now, they both are asking me to recude so my TSH can be in normal range 0.3 to 3.0 But If I reduce even slightly my muscle and joint pains will come back..So I cannot..

Any advice from your experiences will help me !!

[gimel]

So your current daily dosage is 250 mcg of Synthroid and a 1 1/2 grains of Armour, is that correct?