Do I have Hypothyroidism?

Hormones
1

I'm new to this group and live in the United States. I received the Depo Provera injection for the past 14 years for my cyclic migraines not really for birth control. And it worked wonderfully -saved my life. My headaches were so excruciating I wanted to die. 9 months ago that shot was discontinued by my nurse practitioner because of my high blood pressure....which really wasn't terribly high. Anyway I was given Lyza/or more popularly called the mini pill (progestin)to replace it.

My first question, and I understand it has nothing to do with my thyroid, but I will get to that I promise, is why was I given progestin to replace my Depo shot which was progestin as well? Perhaps there are some different things in the Depo shot that aren't in lyza .That's like taking someone off of morphine and giving them morphine.

Anyway I'm not adjusting the mini pill very well. I'm bleeding off and on all the time and my migraines have returned. Now here's where I'm getting to the thyroid part of my question.

About 8 days ago, on May 16, I started bleeding...AGAIN... but along with that bleeding came an excruciating headache like I've never felt before, coupled with neck pain ,joint pain, feeling hot ,tired ,exhausted...just systemically blah, like the flu, but at that point I had no fever. That was the first day of the ordeal I'm describing to you on the second day I did have a fever 101 .3, and have continued to have a fever up until yesterday.

Now, I was bitten by Deer Tick around a month ago so when I went to the doctor last week the first thing they tested me for was Lymes. It was negative.

Other symptoms that I have had since being taken off the Depo shot: feeling depressed, sometimes it hurts when I swallow,my blood pressure has gotten a little weird a lot of times the top number is high but the bottom number is awesome(155/76) I have gained about 20 pounds,I feel like I'm hungry all the time and want to eat but I know that I'm not really hungry. I feel like I sleep a lot. I go to bed fairly early but I don't wake up early, and when I do,I'm still exhausted. I have had issues with my depression in the past and it's usually described as seasonal affective disorder, but ever since last July or August my depression has not lifted at all. Also one other strange things that has come up over the past four to six months is I feel like I can't remember anything. I'm real good at naming actors and musicians and movies and things like that and I just can't find my words now.

I have an appointment with my nurse practitioner tomorrow and I'm going to request that a complete thyroid blood panel be done, my question is, if I'm not running a fever tomorrow and I feel fine will the labs come back and read that all is well? Should I have had that blood drawn like two days ago?

I apologize that this was such a long posting. I would really appreciate some feedback as far as any other specific blood test that I need to ask for and would also appreciate opinions that anyone out there may have...it just seems like every time I post on a medical sight, I rarely get any help or replies back. And if there's any questions that anyone wants to ask me please do so. I can fill in any missing information you might think there is in my super long post.

Thanks so much.

2

Hi Robyn, first off, depoprovera can have some major side effects. So it's important to consider that while you got some migraine relief, the Depo is known to cause all sorts of severe hormonal irregularities that can last for years after going off the Depo. 

Next, yes. You could be hypothyroid, as hypothyroid disease can commonly go undiagnosed for decades.  You need to get a full thyroid panel. Also there are physical characteristics and symptoms that accompany thyroid disease: thinning hair, thinking outer eyebrows, widened neck, dry skin, digestive problems, headaches, sluggishness. This list seems endless. Do an online search for hypothyroid symptoms.

Advanced thyroid disease can also be paired with adrenal exhaustion and even low progesterone, which results in spotting. My experience with low thyroid  has been very specifically excessive periods, as two weeks on, two weeks off, or one week on, one week off. And, spotting a few days prior to menstruation. I was told this is due to low progesterone levels. As with hypothyroid, the body is unable to maintain normal metabolism and will start shutting down "unnecessary" functions to maintain support if vital heart and brain functions.

To make matters worse, many deficiencies can cause similar symptoms. The ones to look at are B complex, particularly B6 and B12, because both of these are ones that some people don't properly absorb these. You can typically get B12 njections to help with this, or you can try some coblimated B supplements. Magnesium deficiency can also cause hypothyroid like symptoms. vitamin D is also crucial. Really the best thing you can do is rather than run a bunch of blood tests for deficiencies, just take a good quality multivitamin with coblimated Bs and a multimineral.  

Next, thyroid disease is generally autoimmune disease, most often caused by chemical exposure or heavy metal toxicity, which can interfere with the thyroxin functions. So cleansing can be very helpful.

Because thyroid disease diagnosis and treatment can be so tricky, patients tend to do a lot of research on their own. 

Does that hat helpngive you some direction as to where to focus your healing energy?

3

Robyn, the levels of various hormones should not vary from one day to the next, so your blood tests should not be affected just because you my feel a bit better tomorrow. Go ahead and good luck.

4

Aloha to you! Wow! I'm literally crying (another fun new thing going on with me)at the fact that you actually took the time to respond as you did! That's a first for me. Thank you so very much for your kindness and concern (still crying...) I am taking everything that you posted and doing a sort of "go over" so that I will be more prepared for my Dr appt tomorrow. Mahalo!

5

Aloha! Thank you, Dave, for your prompt reply. That's exactly what I needed to know. Mahalo!

6

Great! So glad to help. I've struggled so long, I'm delighted to help save others the same difficulties. 

And just so you know, when my thyroid levels are really bad, I cry all the time.