Assembled by Mary Shomon, Your Thyroid Guide
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"Dear Oprah,
I had always been a very high-energy person. I loved raising our daughter, gardening and yard work, updating our new ‘old’ home, and teaching water aerobics to list a few of my many activities. I had also managed to get back to my pre-marriage weight. I felt like I had a never-ending supply of energy. The summer I turned 42 things started to change.
One day after gardening, I came in the house totally fatigued. My bones and muscles ached. I was so exhausted I fell on the sofa numb. When I finally pulled myself up, the bottoms of my feet felt so swollen I felt like I was walking on balloons. I thought that maybe I was coming down with the flu or had been bitten by something in the yard. I managed a shower, 2 Tylenol and went to bed. It was 36 hours before I felt good again…until 4 months later. Again the symptoms returned after a weekend of heavy physical work. Soon the symptoms were coming more frequently and not always after physical stress. Sometimes they would come when I was under emotional stress.
By the time I was 43 I had developed a list of other symptoms. My hair was falling out, my skin was dry and itchy, my breasts shrunk a full cup size, my memory was failing. I suffered from brain fog, lack of sex drive, debilitating fatigue and I gained 30 lbs in 4 months without changing my diet. (Sorry Dr. Phil but it can happen) I looked and felt much older than I was. I had been to our family Dr. who could not find anything wrong with me. He thought maybe my thyroid might be ‘starting to go’ so he put me on a hypothyroid drug called Levoxyl. I took this drug for 4 months with no positive results. I ended up visiting 3 other Drs. with no luck and no diagnosis. One endocrinologist felt certain I was suffering from depression. Of course I was depressed…I felt terrible and no one could tell me why. I always left their offices feeling frustrated and like a hypochondriac.
One day it all came apart. As I was standing in the kitchen I realized I couldn’t immediately recall my husband's name. I was really scared. My husband insisted I visit a specialist that my girlfriend recommended. After a thorough exam and tons of blood work we had a diagnosis. I was indeed hypothyroid and menopausal. I was still taking the Levoxyl that my family Dr. gave me but it was ineffective. My new Dr. changed me to Armour thyroid. She also started me on a natural estrogen called Bi-est - 20% estridiol and 80% estriol. Within 2 days of starting my new medications I felt like I had been given my life back! It wasn’t long before I started getting compliments on how young and healthy I looked.
I wish someone would have explained to me that often times a women may experience hypothyroid as she enters menopause. I lost 18 months of my life fighting an illness that should have been easily diagnosed. I believe one of the reasons I wasn’t diagnosed immediately was because my blood work showed my thyroid was in range. Even though it was in the very high end the Drs. assumed nothing was wrong with me. Forget listening to my physical symptoms, the blood work doesn’t lie. Even though my numbers were in the range the lab said they should be in, my body was saying they were out of range. As for the menopause, because I had my uterus removed when I was 38, I wasn’t able to use periods as a gauge for a menopause diagnosis.
You are the voice for so many women’s health issues. You’ve taught us to be our own health advocates. We’ve learned that it’s up to us to search for answers. On many of your women’s health shows the symptoms that I see over and over again point to a potential hypothyroid problem. Yet this is not a subject that I’ve seen discussed on your show. I encourage you to explore this widespread, yet under diagnosed, illness on your show. There are thousands of women who would benefit from this information. An excellent place to begin is at a thyroid exchange at http://thyroid.about.com You might even discover that you are a sufferer of hypothyroid.
I haven’t yet been able to lose the 30 lbs I gained, but I continue to work on it. The best part is I feel alive again. I’m back to doing the things I love because I didn’t stop looking until I got an answer."
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