thyroid v. adrenals. v. menopause

[robinhy]

My medical coverage is great here in Germany but useless in the states. I don't have addison's I have secondary adrenal insufficiency (pituitary cause...sorry maybe thats stating the obvious to you). i currently take armour which has t4 and t3. Before I took t4 only...results were the same. It's possible that I have menopause but that doesn't explain why my armour makes me sick..I can't find the connection. I'm trying really hard to do some research and find some answers but it seems half of the web sites say one thing and the other half say the opposite. My head is spinning and I can't stop crying.

Robin

[ChristyE]

Originally Posted by robinhy

She says that nobody should feel worse when taking armour...only better.

Robin, I'm not sure this is helpful information, but I am someone who feels worse on Armour. You can read my thread over on the Thyroid board--"Having Trouble with Armour".

Essentially, I felt great on Armour for the first 3-4 weeks, then a major crash with muscle/joint pain, depression, brain fog. Doctor decided to increase the dose because she checked my TSH and it was high. The week on the increased dose of Armour was pure hell. All of the above symptoms, only 10 times worse.

After a week, I quit the Armour cold turkey and the next day I felt completely back to "normal". Thought maybe I should go back to the smaller dose of Armour, so I tried it again that night, and boom, all the symptoms were back in the morning.

From what I've read, some people cannot tolerate the ratio of T4 to T3 in Armour--it's too much T3.

I feel for you. I too am dealing with low cortisol (but low progesterone instead of estrogen). It's such a pain in the butt, isn't it?

Hang in there.

Christy

[sadie-mae]

Oh, Robin,
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you and hope I haven't. I forgot that you are in Germany-I remembered as soon as I read your post.

So, you already know the issue is pituitary. Now you need to find another doctor to try again. You can't give up and the one you've got has outlived their usefulness.

I spent much of my morning crying, too. I empathize with the hopelessness of not being able to find someone to aggressively do something to help. There just have to be pituitary experts (more than one, if you're already seeing one) that can help.

I'm so sorry and I wish I could say more than that to help. I'm glad Christy answered you with personal experiences with Armour-that sounds like very validating information for you.

Take care,
Sadie

[robinhy]

Christy,

For me I have the same problems with armour as I do with synthetic, t4 only. How about you? Since you're not taking
armour what do you take?

Robin

[ChristyE]

Originally Posted by robinhy

For me I have the same problems with armour as I do with synthetic, t4 only. How about you? Since you're not taking armour what do you take?

Ahhh, I'm sorry, I didn't understand this. I've been on meds for about 5 years, most of that time has been Levoxyl. That's what I went back to when I stopped taking the Armour.

After this recent Armour mess, I decided (upon other people's advice on this and Thyroid board) to treat the adrenals first and worry about the thyroid second. So, I'm currently trying adrenal glandulars, and I've noticed some improvement. I just ordered some Isocort (not exactly sure how Isocort is different from glandulars except that Isocort is sheep adrenal, and I'm taking bovine adrenal, but I'm willing to give it a try.).

If Isocort doesn't work, I'm going to push my doc or find a doc who is willing to try Cortef. After adrenals are better, then I may start messing around with Levoxyl/Cytomel or Synthroid/Cytomel, but I'm hoping that I may not even need to do anything. I'm thinking that if I get my adrenals under control that my thyroid stuff may balance out as well.

Here's something I just found in Dr. Kenneth Blanchard's book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Hypothyroidism:

Part of the problem in distinguishing the two conditions [menopause and hypothyroidism] is that they are closely linked. As catalysts for metabolism, thyroid hormones affect all cells, including the production of progesterone and estrogen in ovarian tissue. In addition, estrogens can reduce the effect of thyroid hormone and lock it out from receptor sites on tissue cells. As a result, thyroid hormone fails to reach its metabolic destination. In addition, estrogen increases the level of ciculating carrier proteins, resulting in a shortage of free, active thyroid hormones.

I'm not sure my point with this quote, but it seems to support what you've read about estrogen reducing thyroid? Sorry if I'm getting confused on this.

Anyway, have you checked out Dr. Lee's book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause? I've read his What Your...PreMenopause, and I found the info very helpful.

I'll keep the board posted on my adrenal glandulars/Isocort adventures. Maybe it will help someone in the future.

Christy

P.S. If the thyroid meds make you feel bad, what happens to your symptoms when you quit taking the thyroid? What happens to your TSH/T4/T3 levels?