I am not looking for any medical opinions or advice, just experiences of members, family members or friends.

Yesterday I was diagnosed as having lower thyroid production than is desirable and as a result have been prescribed medication.

I am hoping that I might experience a little weight loss, has anyone experienced this or know anyone that has, and have there been any unpleasant effects of taking thyroid replacement?

Sue, I have been taking Synthroid (thyroid replacement medication) for about 8 years now and I don't have any problems. Before I was diagnosed as being Hypothyroid, I noticed that I was gaining weight when I hadn't changed my eating patterns or exercise routine. My doctor did some checks and found that I was not producing enough thyroid and placed me on the lowest medication possible. I would get my blood checked every 90 days and have the medication adjusted accordingly. I usually get my blood checked now once every 9 months just to make sure my medication is working properly and if the levels are off, my doctor adjusts the micrograms that I'm taking. I noticed that I was able to lose the weight I had gained and I wasn't so tired all the time. As for any unpleasant side effects, I haven't heard of any and I know quite a few women who take the medication. Hypothyroidism is quite common, especially among women.

That sounds great, was the weight loss gradual? I would think that I have gained about 10 pounds or a little more.

I wish I could say that the weight just fell off after starting the medication , but yes, it was gradual. At least after taking the medication and getting my thyroid levels back to normal it allowed me to lose it; seems before that no matter what I did, I couldn't shake the excess weight.

Sue, I have been on Levothroid for over 15 years now. I was originally hyper-thyroid and had lost about 10 pounds gradually over a period of a couple of years. Little did I know that maybe I was lucky. (I'm being facetious). Also, I could stand outside in 32 (F.) degree weather and be hot.

After my thyroid was zapped I was put on medication. They try to make all things equal, but to err on the side of caution they wind up making one just a little hypo-thyroid. Now I'm cold a lot, and have been putting back on the weight I'd lost and more!

Good luck!

Thanks.

The weird thing is that although my body temperature is low I feel hot. I am wondering if I have had problems with my thyroid for years as I gain weight without looking at food and my body temprature has been on the low side for years, in fact if it comes up to 'normal' it is when I feel unwell. I would have thought they would have tested that in hospital so perhaps it is new - I just don't know.

I've been on Synthroid for almost 2 years, but I suspect I had been hypothyroid for years before that. Mine was diagnosed during blood work for an unrelated condition, and my levels were so off the chart my doctor couldn't believe it. I knew nothing about it and did a lot of research on the internet. Like ClaraSue said, it is pretty common among us "middle-aged" women. My hypothyroidism was combined with severe anemia (which was corrected with surgery) so I feel about 10 times better than I used to! (and yes, it is easier to lose weight now - it doesn't automatically come off, but trying to lose it does actually work!)

My little sister almost died when she was 6 weeks old from hyperthyroid. On of my earliest memories is of walking out of the hospital ward, with her in her playpen screaming because we were leaving her. She had on blue footy jammies with Big Bird on them. I didn't know what was going on then, as I was not 2 years old yet. But my memory is surrounded with an aura of fear so thick it's hard for me to keep from crying when I think about it. Especially now that I'm older and I know that a couple hours later to the emergency room and that memory of my little sister in her blue footies, crying from being left alone, might be the only memory I ever had of her.

Now she's a young woman, and I guess it's pretty typical that folks who have hyper-thyroid as very young children experience hypo-thyroid early in their adulthood. So far she's experiencing most of the symptoms of it, but very mildly, and the docs in Atlanta won't put her on medication because she's at the very lowest edge of "normal". Being an epidemiology student, this upsets her, since she knows that "normal" for a populace is most certainly not normal for an individual, and given her circumstances, she most likely SHOULD be on medication.

How strange to refuse to treat her condition.

I have no idea whether my thyroid has been checked in the past, I have had a low body temperature for years, it rarely reached 'normal' and I gained weight without looking at food. When I consider the number of blood tests that I have had in teh pst year I would be very surprised that it hadn't been checked. One drug I was taking could have affected mine, amiodarone, a very nasty drug.

Well, like I said, Sue, even given her history and her symptoms, the doctors maintain that her tests are still in the "normal" range. Normal, though, when used like it is here, is VERY misleading. They have no idea what Jen's "normal" rates would be, so they judge it based on the bell curve of society's "normal" rates. Basically, her tests are on the very edge of the average range on a bell curve. Since she is showing symptoms, she has contested that her test results are obviously NOT normal for her, but without having an actual sample of what her normal range is, they won't put her on medication. Which means that her condition will have to worsen before they do anything about it. She's VERY upset with them. She meant to get a second opinion from her doctor here when she was home for the holidays, but she was working on grant proposals almost the entire time she was back and simply ran out of time. It doesn't help that the symptoms are also associated with stress, "female issues" and all manner of other things. I think that it's easier for the doctors to simply dismiss the symptoms as restulting from something else as long as the tests come back in the normal range.

The only fortune is that her results showed SO close to the edge of "normal" that her condition will not have to worsen very much at all for the doctors to finally take it seriously.

Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland fails to produce enough thyroid hormone. It can cause weight gain and exhaustion.

Hyperthyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland produces an excessive amount of the thyroid hormone. It can cause weight loss, increased appetite, increased blood pressure, excessive urination.

Right, DakotaNorth. And my sister's pediatrician told my parents to keep a watch for symptoms of hypothyroidism, because occasionally severe hyperthyroidism in young children, like she was, can cause the thyroid to be underdeveloped, and therefore cause hypothyroid in their adulthood, usually much earlier than is typical. Seems odd, I think, but totally understandable when one thinks about it. Like the thyroid burns out or something.

Hyperthyroidism -- also known as Graves Disease, suffered by huge numbers of women (Barbara Bush for one). See here

YEP I KNOW AT LEAST THREE WOMEN WHO HAVE IT, MY MUM, MY MA IN LAW AND MY MATE MAUREEN. THEY HAVE TESTED MINE LOADS OF TIMES BUT I HAVEN'T GOT IT.

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Hyperthyroidism -- also known as Graves Disease, suffered by huge numbers of women (Barbara Bush for one).

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The link said that Graves Disease can cause Hyperthyroidism; it doesn't say that Hyperthyroidism is also known as Graves Disease.

Quote from link: "Graves' Disease is a type of autoimmune disease that causes over-activity of the thyroid gland, causing hyperthyroidism."

Quote:

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Hyperthyroidism is a condition in which the thyroid gland produces an excessive amount of the thyroid hormone. It can cause weight loss, increased appetite, increased blood pressure, excessive urination.

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Left untreated, hyperthroidism can also lead to a goiter. I could list numerous web sites which state such things as:

Quote:

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Definition: Excessive functional activity of the thyroid gland.
Narrow term(s): Graves' Disease

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However, having myself suffered through the entire ritual of hyperthroidism, goiter, etc., I thought I would simply relate to Sue my experiences.

Thank you, yes it was anecdotal information I wanted, that can be far more useful than the information I had already found on the internet, sometimes the internet can give overload and certainly my symptoms don't all tally with what I have found. According to various sites that I have checked, an underactive thyroid can mean that you cannot get warm, cannot tolerate cold, now my personal experience is the opposite, I cannot tolerate heat. My body temperature is subnormal, to have a normal temperature to me makes me feel as if I am running a fever!

The slip in with the medicaiton talks of possible side effects but it helps to know from others whether they experienced any great problems.

I just remembered something else my endocrinologist told me Sue. When my throid was zapped with that lovely tasting "hot water" (yuck!), the goal was to come as close to normal as possible, yet even become slightly hypothryoid. Hence the need for levothroid. He told me that this medicine and the thyroid are very slow acting and takes weeks to "level off." So he saw me every three months until he was confident that I was taking the right amount of levothroid. He also told me that missing the pill one or two days is not horrible as it is that slow acting. Actually, I was told that I could even take 7 pills one day a week, althought that was not recommended. So once in a while when I am really, really tired of just "popping a pill" I take day off and then take two the next day.

So hopefully it's just taking some time to "level off" or for the Dr. to determine that maybe your amount of medicine may be too high.