Very concerned about blood work

Hormones
1

Hey all. I'm a 29 year old female. Non smoker (quit 3 months ago) and non drinker. My mom and 2 of my brothers have hypothyroidism and I'm about to go in for blood work here in a few hours. I'm just not sure what the odds would be for me to have hyperthyroidism when they have hypo. All my symptoms point to hyperthyroidism.

•Broken sleep

•Can't shut my brain off to sleep

•Went from 168 pounds to 137 in 6 months with absolutely no exercising or dieting, in fact I'm always starving. I eat whatever and whenever.

•I rarely have a solid stool. Diarrhea 95% of the time.

•I sweat all the time. Even during the winter and I have severe heat intolerance.

•panic attacks atleast 5 times a week

•mood swings, one minute I'm fine, the next I'm crying and easily agitated.

•heart rate that usually rests around 95bpm (doctor noticed my anxiety and put me on citalopram 3 werks ago so it's lowered to around 85bpm)

•periods are VERY irregular. Sometimes last only 3 light days, I've skipped some before.

•always fatigued no matter how much I sleep.

•Extremely emotional.

Sorry for the extremely long post and over sharing. I'm just not understanding what is going on with my body. I was diagnosed with IBS 3 years ago because of the diarrhea and I'm finally having my thyroid checked. I haven't had blood work done in a long time due to no insurance and it's hard to pay for these types of tests. What do I tell the doctor today? Any words of advice are appreciated. Thank you!

2

It sounds to me that you do have symptoms of hyperthyroidism.  It is possible that both you and your family members could have Hashimoto's thyroiditis.  With Hashimoto's, it can present as hyper and then swing to hypo when it burns itself out.  Your doctor first has to do thyroid blood tests to confirm you are hyper and then do autoimmune blood tests to dtermine the casue.  You may also have Polycystic Ovary Disease (PCOS) with your menstrual history.  My cousin had thyroid cancer and PCOS.  What you can do to start is to watch your diet and eat a healthy diet of fruits, proteins and vegetables and avoid sugar, gluten and especially the artificial Aspartame.  Then wait and see what your medical tests show and go from there.

3

Thank you Linda for your reply. I have had the hyper and hypo symptoms. Gaining weight, then losing it rapidly. My mom does in fact have hashimotos thyroiditis. She had thyroid storm and had a thyroid nepherectomy in 2009 so that does make sense. I really appreciate your response to me. I'm ready to give them my blood (even though the anxiety part is flaring up. I hate needles) then I can go from there. I've never heard of PCOS....so that's a new word to me. Thank you again for your reply!

4

Hi Ashley,  I sent you a message.