Hashimoto's and Reaction to Synthroid?!?

[Melisaelaine]

11 days ago I was diagnosed with Hashimotos. I had no side effects of the disease and absolutely no clue anything was wrong with me. I am pregnant and when they took my bloodwork at the OB they saw my TSH was 5.4 and TPO 595. They referred me to an endocrinologist who told me I had hashimotos and started me on 75 mcg synthroid. One week after I began synthroid I started feeling horrible. Please keep in mind I felt perfectly fine before I started the meds. I thought I was coming down with the flu! Terrible body aches, no energy, pounding head, no appetite (lost 4 pounds this week!), can't sleep. Went to doctor yesterday after being on synthroid for 1.5 weeks. My TSH has already dropped to 2.2. Doesn't that seem fast?? He said he would drop me down to 50 mcg but that still seems high to me. Can I take half that dose?? I can't handle the way this med is making me feel! Please help!

[Red_Star]

The natural production of thyroid hormones can slow down in response to thyroxine and it can take 4 to 6 weeks for thyroxine to build up in the blood. In other words, you can feel worse before you feel better. Hang in there. :)

[Barb135]

Your doctor started you on too high a dosage.  Typically, it's best to start at a very low dose and work up as  needed, in order to give the body a chance to readjust to having the hormones again.  It takes 4-6 weeks for the med to reach full potential in your blood.

I'm sure the reason your doctor started you out higher is because you're pregnant and adequate thyroid hormones are essential for proper growth and development of a fetus.  Unfortunately, TSH is a poor indicator of actual thyroid hormone status.  You really need to be tested for the actual thyroid hormones, Free T3 and Free T4...  if those were done, please post the results, with reference ranges.  FT3 is the active hormone, used by the individual cells, while FT4 is a "storage hormone" that  must be converted to FT3, prior to use.

It's not unusual for TSH to drop quickly, like yours did... TSH fluctuates greatly, even over the course of a day and is affected by quite a few variables.

It's, also, not unusual for symptoms to worsen or new ones to appear when first starting a med or changing med/doses.

I'd suggest that you talk to your endo about cutting back to 25 mcg/day for a couple weeks, then increasing to 50... this will give your body a chance to adjust to the med.  

How far along is your pregnancy?

Make sure you insist on having the Free T3 and Free T4 "every" time you have blood work done.