Intro
Ever found yourself battling fatigue, sluggishness, or a stubborn weight gain that just won’t budge? Let’s talk about a potential culprit: your thyroid.
Understanding Low Thyroid
Even if your thyroid has been normal throughout your life, it can get lower as you age. Since women are 5-8 times more likely to develop a low thyroid than men, it’s common that middle-aged women often get the symptoms confused with peri-menopause, and just chalk it up to “the change”.
Thyroid hormone is a naturally occurring hormone in your body, made by the thyroid gland in the front of your neck. When patients have low thyroid, often this gland is not producing as much hormone as it used to.
Symptoms of Low Thyroid
Symptoms of low thyroid can also be mistaken for menopause – really, if you think about it, these are both results of low hormones in the system – low thyroid hormone or low estrogen hormone.
“Some symptoms of hypothyroidism are similar to symptoms reported during the menopause transition. These include fatigue, forgetfulness, mood swings, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycles, and cold intolerance.” – North American Menopause Society
Typical clinical symptoms of low thyroid include:
- dry skin
- constipation
- weight gain
- feeling cold a lot of the time
- dry, brittle hair
- brittle nails
- feelings of tiredness
- low exercise tolerance
What to do if I think I might have thyroid issues?
The first step is seeing your Family Doctor or Nurse Practitioner for a thyroid blood test. Perhaps you’ve already had one done! It’s a simple blood test that shows how active (or how underactive) your thyroid is.
From there, if you’re diagnosed with a low thyroid, you will be prescribed a tablet called levothyroxine, which is a tablet form of the natural thyroid hormone in your body. Typically you would start on a dose, and take that dose for 2-3 months, then have your thyroid checked again to see how the dose is working. From there, if necessary the dose will be increased or decreased based on your blood test results. Sometimes it can take up to 6 months to level out your thyroid dose of medication, so don’t despair! We’ll get there!
How can my Pharmacist help?
Your Pharmacist has access to your recent bloodwork, and can help you understand your thyroid levels if you’ve had them done recently.
We can also recommend how to take thyroid medications to get the most out of them, for example – taking them on an empty stomach, making sure not to combine them with vitamins or other medications that can interact and make them less effective.
If you’re taking thyroid medication already, but still feeling like this, book an appointment with Dr. Brooke or Dr. Stephanie to discuss how your medication is working (or not working)!
Video Link
Watch Dr. Stephanie explain all about low thyroid symptoms in this video: