Diagnosing Hashimotos
I recently was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease, which is a autoimmune thyroid disease. My mom has been living with Hashimotos for years. I had a feeling that I would at some point be diagnosed with it but I never was concerned until recently. In college my mom made me get my thyroid levels tested. A main test for Hashimotos is seeing if you have TPO antibodies. I tested positive for antibodies, which is not good. For a person without Hashimotos their TPO (thyroid peroxidase) antibodies should be zero or very close to it. The antibodies effects the enzyme, thyroid peroxidase, which has a significant role in your thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones. My T3 and T4 were not affected yet which is common for people with Hashimotos.
Living With Hashimotos
Fast forward to two years after college. My husband and I are finally married, and not that we want kids now, but we started talking about it. I mentioned it to my mom and she starts talking about being concerned of my thyroid. I started doing some research and I found that woman who have Hashimoto, that is left untreated, can have a difficult time conceiving. Now that I could see kids in my future that really scared me. I do want to be able to conceive at some point. I was also having many different signs and symptoms that my mom said was due to my thyroid. I decided to get my levels drawn again. My antibodies had increased and I was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Thanks to my mom, she made our primary doctor draw numerous other labs associated with Hashimoto’s. I found out I was deficient in so many different things. I was put on Armour Thyroid along with many different vitamins to help support my body function.
Hashimoto’s Disease is an autoimmune thyroid disease caused by your thyroid recognizing itself as something foreign. From there it basically starts attacking itself. Your thyroid is responsible for so many things. Long story short it’s responsible for distributing your hormones so you can stay balanced. Mine is not doing that properly so I need a medication to help it. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can cure Hashimoto’s but there are things that you can do to slow down the attacking process. The goal is to help keep your thyroid functioning for as long as possible.
Once I came to terms that I had a thyroid disease I started noticing things that my body was previously trying to tell me that something was wrong. I started taking a real interest in my thyroid condition. I started doing a lot of research and have read many books on the issue. I have found that the signs and symptoms I was having, throughout my life, was associated with my thyroid. Now that I have realized these symptoms I wanted to share them with anyone else who may think they have a thyroid problem.
Signs & Symptoms of Hashimotos
Brain Fog. I never realized that I had this. I just thought I had a bad memory or was slightly ADD. I was actually put on medicine to help with my concentration in college because I just felt lost in class. Come to find out that was all due to my thyroid. This is the main symptom for a lot of thyroid problems. It gets missed a lot because it is hard to diagnose. There were days where I felt like my head was a balloon. I couldn’t think, I felt stuck because I couldn’t do anything. It is hard to explain but when you are feeling it, you will know what I am talking about.
Irritability, moodiness, depression. I definitely blamed this on my birth control. I thought I just wasn’t on the right dosing which was causing all of my, per my husband, “meanness”. There would be times that I would wake up and just be in a mood for no reason. Of course my husband got the full force of this because he was the one that I was taking my moodiness out on. I wanted to change so badly but no matter what I did I just couldn’t. I felt plagued with this feeling that I was going to go off on someone at any moment.
Brittle Hair. This side effect from my thyroid really got to me. Ever since I was little my grandpa said I was not allowed to cut my hair. In Egypt your hair shows femininity. So, for as long as I could remember I had long, full, curly hair. In college something changed. My hair grew thinner and thinner. It got to the point where you could start to see my scalp in any hair style. My friends were the ones who really noticed it. They kept asking why my hair was getting so thin. Now it all makes sense. It is not that my thyroid is directly causing my hair to thin. It is the fact that my thyroid disease is causing me to be deficient in iron. Iron plays a big part in helping your hair, skin and circulatory system. My iron was so low that I don’t even know how I had hair at all.
Constipation. I know that this might seem like too much information but this is a big issue for me. I just don’t poop. Me being a nurse knows that people should have regular bowel movements, but I just could’t. My mom also has this issue so I thought it was just a genetic thing. You have no idea how much I would like to poop on a daily basis, gross I know…
Constant dry skin. This one is a hard to diagnose because I know a lot of people complain of dry skin. For me I know this has to do with my thyroid because I cannot stop itching my legs. It has become such a problem that the people I work with don’t even question it when I am at work just scratching. I put lotion on every time I get out of the shower, I drink water consistently, and I still have dry itchy skin.
Tired all the time & Sluggishness. Working night shift as a nurse I feel like I am bound to be tired all the time. This is a different kind of tired though. On my days off it felt almost impossible for me to get up before 2 pm. I would go to bed the same time as my husband around 10 pm and could not physically wake myself up. I would set multiple alarms and I would just turn them off. Then when I would wake up finally, a couple hours later I would be so tired I would need a nap. I would then go back to bed the same time as my husband again. I was getting nothing productive done on my days off. I felt so upset that I was just wasting my days away and there was nothing I could do about it. No amount of coffee could wake me up and get me through the whole day.
Cold hands & feet. I am pretty sure this is the one symptom my husband hates the most, even above my moodiness. I would get into bed and immediately shove my bare feet in between his legs to get warm. He would push me away saying I was too cold. Then I would touch his back and he would then push me away saying not to touch him. I have always had cold hands and feet. At first I thought I was anemic and that was causing my problem. I am thinking that it is because my iron again is way too low. See, having low iron can cause a lot of problems with your body.
Low sex drive & infertility. My husband and I have not yet seen the side of infertility since we have not been trying to have kids yet. So, I can’t say if I have had this symptom or not, but I know that this is a common problem for a lot of people with a thyroid disease. I hope when we do start trying that this isn’t an issue. This was probably my biggest concern when I found out I had Hashimoto’s. I so want to be a mother some day and to find out that my thyroid is a reason I can’t be would be devastating. I have recently made the decision to go off birth control. Not because we are trying to have kids at the moment but because I heard it helps my body regulate without it. As for the sex drive. Let me just tell you it is so much better without being on birth control, and that is all I am saying about that.
Weight gain or no weight loss. I have always been a very athletic and active person. I never noticed weight gain until college when I started noticing the amount I was putting on. I know everyone is thinking that all college kids gain the freshman fifteen. This was weight gain even though I was playing college volleyball every weekend and couldn’t drink. I was working out every day but still gaining weight. Then after college no matter how good I was eating and working out I still could loose wight. It was a vicious cycle that can really hurt a persons mental status.
I know that all these symptoms & signs of Hashimotos can sound scary and somewhat vague. There are a lot of people living with a thyroid disease that may not have these symptoms or have completely different ones. These are just what I have noticed through my journey. I have done countless amounts of research and have found ways to help live with my thyroid disease, along with healing Hashimotos. A book that has helped my and me out is called Root Cause by Izabella Wentz. This book has helped me figure out medications to take to help my symptoms and ways to decrease my antibodies. Currently, I am healthy and loving life, learning each day on how to live with Hashimotos. I hope this post helps someone and if anyone has any concerns or questions you know that I am always here.
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