Hello, history and advice please

[Guest guest]

Hi

First of all I'd like to introduce myself. I'm 57 (how did

that happen?), female and I live in Stockport.

and have been diagnosed as hypo for around 12-15 years. I currently take 175 mg levothyroxine a day. I only found this forum recently and am hoping you can help me decide what I should do next...

When I was first diagnosed my then doctor raised my

levothyroxine gradually to around 300 mg a day. I was fine on this and did

lose, through a combination of diet and exercise, a fair amount of the weight I'd

put on pre-diagnosis.

When I moved area, my new doctor was horrified at the amount

of thyroxine I was taking and gradually lowered it to the 175 mg I'm now

on. I have put on lots of weight since

then and, though I do lots of exercise —and I mean lots —and eat very

healthily, I never lose any now. It's quite depressing.

I asked my GP to consider what was happening and I was

referred to an endocrinologist in Manchester.

He was useless and clearly didn't believe me when I talked about my diet or

exercise. He could only suggest taking me into hospital for 2 weeks and feeding

me 500 calories a day to see if that made a difference. It seemed a tad drastic

to me so I declined!

I suffer from a number of allergies, low blood pressure and

cholesterol and I feel the cold again now —except when I do the hot flush thing.

My fingers sometimes go numb and I have loose ligaments. I am generally pretty fit,

healthy and happy, though fat, but do get tired easily. My work involves public

speaking and when I finish for the day it's like a light goes off—I just feel

so exhausted.

Having read the early files in the library here and some of

the postings I am wondering:

a) Is

levothyroxine for t4 or t3 or both? And which is the one that doctors' miss?

Should

I try some sort of adrenal support? If so what is recommended?

c)

Is there any point in my going back to my doctor

and if so what info should I be taking?

Apologies if these are obvious questions but I am confused because

there's so much information here that it's hard to know what's what, and would appreciate any clarity and help

provided. Thanks for listening.