Hashimotos Thyroid in 15 yr old girl

[liscvngtn]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I have a daughter who has had Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome (ablation done 3 yrs ago), we discovered an benign bone tumor on her leg (she had it removed this year, now we have discovered that she has Hashimotos'Thyroid, she is now on synthroid and trying to find a dose that will make her symptom free. My question is this: Could this all be related..and what is the underlying cause of Auto immune disorders? Also, she is now having vision problems and severe menstrual pain. Has anyone had these symptoms?  Isn't she too young to be having Aunto Immune problems?

[Karly122]

Hi.  Whatever you do, do not put her on birth control!  Birth control is a hormone.  Once you tweek one hormone level, others work differently. This can very much affect her thyroid and her treatment.  Once her body is stable on the correct dose of Synthroid FOR HER, it may take a few months for her cycles to go back to normal, and for the pain of her periods to lesson.
All Hashimoto's sufferers understand how great the fatigue can be, and how doing simple, everyday tasks can be very difficult. It is actually unbelievable what having a low thyroid can do to someone. Even walking can be a challenge to someone who suffers untreated hypothyroidism.
There are things you must know about the medicine.  First, it doesn't work over night. Second, things change very slowly. I'll bet your daughter noticed things about her going downhill for years, before it drastically caught up with her enough to send her off to a doctor.  This is how hypothyroidism works.  It took a long time for her to become fully hypo, it is going to take time to get back to normal.  Third, a little medicine goes a long way. Make adjustments slowly.  Each dose should be maintained for 4-6 weeks before moving up.   A free T4 and TSH are necessary to keep track of her levels. (Free T4 being the more important number to go by.  This is the amount of free thyroxine circulating in her body.)  When her levels get back to normal, she should feel better and symptoms should go away within several months.  If they do not, she is still not at the normal level FOR HER.  This is when the medicine should be slowly increased (.12mcg a time each increase) to FINE TUNE her thyroid.  Note that some doctors do not follow this route.  If your doctor is not open minded about fine tuning, find one that is.  Everyone has a normal level. What is normal for one person, may not be normal for the next.  What I always say on this board is, one person may do great on the low end, some in middle, and some on the higher end of this "normal" range.  
Good luck to you and your daughter, and please don't put her on b.c. which could further mess things up with her hormones.
-Karly

[liscvngtn]

Thank you so much for your repsonse! I was just feeling overwhelmed with my daughter not feeling good. Before we had her Hasimotos diagnosis, she saw a tee-shirt that said, "LIFE IS GOOD" and she looked at me and said, "No, it is not" .   She would also mention how she did not understand how people lived life and daily routines so  effortlessly, when it seemed that the smallest thing was such a challenge to her energy. Now that we KNOW what is going on, I am just so anxious to get her feeling better. She has been on Synthroid since Feb. We have had to adjust her meds a little, I guess I was expecting a big change in her energy level once we had her on medication, but although it has helped, there are still some bad days for her, yesterday being once of them. She aches all over and then has to go to bed for several hours during the day.   I am taking her to the eye doctor today and I took her to the Obgyn yesterday. He mentioned putting her on birth control pills to help her cycle. I just hate for her to be on more medications.  
Thank you again for your repsonses!!!!!

[redheadaussie]

Most auto-immune diseases seem to have a glitch in cells reacting to stimuli of varying degrees. For example Lupus sufferers cannot go in the direct sunlight as it triggers a reaction in the skin. Coeliacs have gluten trigger a reaction in the intestines which then the body sends out an army of histamine like reactions causing the person to feel pretty lousy. Hashimoto's attacks the thyroid, the body tries to react and the person feels lousy. It is a complex system, and on a cellular level.
  Once the body starts to be inundated with all these anti-bodies, the poor old body has no idea how to be normal and starts to malfunction in many ways.  Some researchers say it is genetic, some say it is combination of genes and way of life, stress adding to the whole picture or poor diet. The verdict is still out, we still have a very long way to go to find the root causes of auto-immune diseases.
  I too, at 15 had severe menstrual pain, looking back I can see that was probably an early sign of the troubles I was to have in years to come. I am a Hashmoto's sufferer too, and severe menstrual cramps are apparently part of it. I remember them settling down when I was about 20 or so. Buy then I was a skinny little rake eating everything I liked and just thought that was cos I was super busy and young!  I know now that was the Hyper stage of Hashimoto's!  
   I know a little about Wolff-Parkinson White Syndrome, and must say I do feel sorry for your daughter! I watched a programme about it a while ago. A pilot in England had it and obviously he couldn't fly anymore! I don't believe it is an auto-immune disease, but a separate issue to do with the malformation of the heart signals.
  You don't mention the type of bone tumour in her leg. There are many different ones.
I don't think they are all related, but certainly worrying! I think your daughter has had a mixed bag of syndromes to deal with.Not to mention you! As a mother myself I can feel for you and understand your concern for her.
  Auto-immune disease shows no mercy in age. Even new borns can have an auto-immune disease.
   I hope that helps you feel a bit more informed.

[Karly122]

I cannot answer about Wolf Parkinson's White Syndrome. Sorry to say, I do not know anything about it.  However, autoimmune diseases usually run in families.  We don't know what exactly causes it, but the toxins in food we eat, water we drink, and the air we breathe can wreak havoc on our hormones.  Any medicines your daughter was taking for the Parkinson's could have affected her thyroid, as some medicines are known to alter hormone output.  No, she is not too young to have problems, it can happen at any age. It seems people who are older get sick more often than the young, because they have had more time being exposed to hazardous chemicals.  Drinking, smoking, drug use, bad diet, and pesticides are just a few things that cause our hormones to become out of whack.  I would bring her in for an eye exam to rule out anything causing her vision to go awry.  Sometimes hypothyroidism affects the eyes, so with the correct dose this should go away.  My menstrual pains used to be so painful that I thought I would vomit.  The pain would wake me in the middle of the night, and nothing but a hot bath would relieve it.  This is a symptom of low thyroid also, and should get better with the correct dose.  In the meantime, tell her doctor of her painful periods and vision disturbances.  He may be able to run other tests to rule other things out.  Good luck to you and your daughter.
Karly