To better understand what thyroid issues you may be going through, we are talking about three examples of patients with symptoms and the results of their thyroid issues. You may find that you relate to these examples.
Each of these cases concerns real patients, and we do protect their identities. Once you read their stories, you may find your symptoms match and know there is help for you to gain back your vitality and health.
Symptoms of thyroid issues are all over the board, and you do not need to have every single symptom to be suffering. You may only have a couple of symptoms causing you pain, suffering, and exhaustion, and that is why the Medical Weight Loss and Hormone Clinic is here – to help you relieve your pain, suffering and bring back your vitality.
You may look up your symptoms on the Internet or tell your doctor that you feel you have thyroid issues. Your doctor tests you, and the tests say that everything is normal, but you are still feeling awful. This diagnosis can be very frustrating – you know something is wrong, but no one can find out what the problem is.
First Patient
Our patient is 39 years old, weighs 142 pounds, and is about 5’6 or 5’7″ tall. She came to our clinic with headaches at the base of her neck that migrated up to the front of her head. She has these headaches about once a month, but she also gets sinus pressure headaches three times a week. These sinus headaches seemed to radiate behind her eyes. Also, this patient gets heart palpitations.
She also has endometriosis, problems with a foggy mind, and infertility. She takes magnesium to help her sleep and for her migraines, magnesium provides a little relief but not completely, and she watches what she eats. She is also on an iron supplement, and she exercises every day when she can.
Our patient also has hair loss and Raynaud’s Syndrome. Raynaud is an autoimmune disorder characterized by circulatory issues. Her hands and feet get extraordinarily little circulation; hands and feet are cold, look purple, and ache. To help with her Raynaud’s, she took essential oils, but nothing else.
When she was 26 years old, she was given progesterone to help carry her baby to full term. She had two previous miscarriages, and it was determined that she had low progesterone. Progesterone needs to be high enough for the fetus to latch onto the uterus. Patients with PCOS and thyroid issues often have low progesterone.
She went to the health food store for thyroid support supplements, which helped her a little bit for about three or four years. These supplements stopped working, which is normal, as our thyroid naturally drops as we age.
This patient is not heavy. Although hypothyroid and PCOS are associated with weight gain, this patient did not appear to have this symptom. She did have to work hard to maintain her weight, and she is very particular about what she eats and does exercise.
Other symptoms include headaches and a high sex drive, which is a flag for PCOS. Not all PCOS have this issue, but a good portion of women with high sex drive indicate that testosterone is high a PCOS marker. She was not diagnosed with PCOS or Low thyroid before our clinic.
These symptoms, plus her need for progesterone when she was in her 20s, indicate that she has had thyroid problems for at least 15 years. However, her doctor would not test her thyroid because she was thin. She was, however, diagnosed with Raynaud’s, and the doctor gave her steroids that often cause weight gain.
Through OUR testing protocol, we did find that she had PCOS and Low Thyroid we did treat her with the proper medications (not including birth control). Migraines have dissipated, energy is up and her Raynaud’s Syndrome is in remission.
Next Patient
This patient is remarkably close in characteristics to our first patient. She is in her late 30s, tall, has a high sex drive, cystic acne on her face and back, and issues with her hands. She also has the symptoms of hair loss, exhaustion, and digestive issues.
This patient’s digestive issues include being lactose intolerant, gluten problems, on even raw veggies. She has acid reflux and heartburn. In addition to her digestive and other symptoms, her hands ached, and the only relief she could find was when she wrapped a hot, wet rag around her knuckles.
Her levels often got missed because of normal tests that deal with the “TSH.” The TSH is a thyroid-stimulating hormone that sends messages from the pituitary to the thyroid gland. These messages tell the thyroid to produce hormones for the body. However, the testing only checks how many messages are sent to the thyroid. If the thyroid is low and not functioning, the pituitary gland’s message tells the thyroid you need more hormone production.
Often there is an interruption in communication, not in symptoms but communication. When many women walk around feeling horrible with headaches, freezing, hair loss, and other symptoms, they have low thyroid. Because only one test is taken, your thyroid problems will get missed and dismissed.
Several studies show that elevated testosterone, usually associated with PCOS, can stabilize the TSH, putting you in the normal range. Your thyroid and testosterone issues do get missed for a long time; however, the doctors only test the communication between the pituitary and thyroid.
Your emotional state is also impacted. With thyroid issues, like this patient, you have horrible PMS issues. Along with these PMS issues, you get emotional easily, have low back pain, heavy cycles, headaches, and migraines. You are miserable.
She finally came to see us because of her weight gain, and she found us through a Facebook ad dealing with weight loss. After testing her, we found that her symptoms were due to thyroid and PCOS issues, including weight gain. We were able to help her with all her issues.
She is now completely symptom-free and training for a half marathon.
Third Patient
The next patient is a 13-year old who is homeschooled, not for COVID, but because she had a hard time getting out of bed because she was so tired. She was frequently late for class, although she is a straight-A student.
Her mom brought her into our clinic, was filling out the paperwork and a symptoms sheet, and thought, “this is my other daughter too.” Her daughter had PCOS – and not everyone with thyroid issues has PCOS, but 80% of women with PCOS have thyroid issues. Also, this young lady started her period when she was eight years old, and that is when all the symptoms started.
She had hair loss, was cold all the time, and had constipation. Also, she had the symptoms of headaches at the base of her neck about twice a month. She also has some facial hair, low back pain, and a lump in her chest that Primary Children’s claimed was a hormone problem. They did do a biopsy and found nothing. They also tested her thyroid and said her labs were normal.
Her older sister has quite a few thyroid issues, and she goes to an endocrinologist. The sister was diagnosed with fortunate thyroid problems. However, the older sister is on medication that doesn’t seem to work, so the mom brought her 13-year old daughter into our clinic.
Symptoms for this young lady also included heavy cycles, so her primary care doctor put her on birth control. If you have PCOS, birth control can help, but only for a little while. Birth control is a band-aid and not proper treatment. The synthetic hormones in birth control can have long-term health issues later in life. But when you are young and in junior high, it can help with the facial hair, acne and helps so you are not bleeding all over the place. Birth control, however, does not help weight gain, and if you are in junior high, it’s the worse place to be when you are having body issues.
We did our in-depth thyroid test and found low thyroid, so we put her on a good, healthy natural thyroid, but we found out she was allergic to the filler. We did isolate the symptoms and had to prescribe her a very pure preparation. There are compounding pharmacies that make pure preparations. Our clinic spends a great deal of time with teenage patients to get them the right hormones and make their lives easier.
As we treated her, symptoms started to go away, and then they came back. As we listened to her talk about the symptoms she was experiencing, we realized it was Hashimoto’s. She tested positive for Hashimoto’s. We began treating the Hoshimoto’s with LDN, and we continued treating her thyroid. As of today, she is doing great. Mom has decided to bring her older daughter in, too.
You do not have to live with all these aches and pains, whether you are a teenager or an older woman. Visit Medical Weight Loss and Hormone Clinic, and we will give you the proper testing and help you live a fuller lifestyle.
