cleaning up the endocrin disaster!

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I wrote, and things are definitely

improving, but I thought I'd check in with a few questions.

My current (and very decent) doctor had me test my sex hormones on

day 22 of my last cycle, and the following were the results:

Estradol - 236 PMOL/L

Testosterone - 2.8 nmol/L

Progesterone - 32.7 nmol/L

DHEAS - 10.7 umol/L

sTSH - <0.01 mU/L

T4 Free 12.0 pmol/L

T3 Free 5.8 pmol/L

She's waiting for a few other tests (Free testosterone, ACTH,

Vitamin D, Indican RU)

Also, I had my serum cortisol tested back at the end of March, and

it was at 161 NMOL/L around 11am. Low, to say the least. And at

this same time, my ferritin tested at 16 UG/L, so I'm now taking

floradix iron every day.

I have been put on some natural progesterone (prometrium - can't

recall the dosage) from day 12 to the end of my cycle, which I'll be

starting in about a week.

My questions are:

1) How bad is my adrenal fatigue and is it reversable?

2) Do I absolutely need cortisol, considering that my energy level

has improved greatly since getting the Armour (my lab says that Free

T3 at 5.8 is actually too high but Dr. isn't messing with it at the

moment)?

3) Is the form of progesterone I've been given a safe one?

4) What ammo do you think I'd need to get a pituitary scan and a

thyroid scan/biopsy done to rule out additional problems? I respond

hugely to small changes in medication (went from a TSH of 5.13 to

1.54 and then to 0.11 all on 0.1 of Eltroxin, and then down to <0.01

on 90mg of Armour when I was switched over)

5) When I get my ferritin and cortisol up, will I need more Armour

to keep my FT3/FT4 where they are, or will my body actually use more

hormone thereby depleting blood levels and requiring an increase in

medication? I just don't understand how my T3 and TSH could be

where they are on 1.5 grains of Armour!

6) Typically, how long does it take to sort all of this out and

start losing weight? I think I might have lost a little bit, but

I'm 6'2 " and at 277 lbs so I'd really like to move it along!!

Thanks and sorry for the long list!

Lynda