Hypothyroidism: Doctors ignored all signs – up to depression

This text first appeared at this point brigitte.de.

Something is wrong with you There was a voice in my head whispering that. At first very quietly, but over time it got louder and louder. Demanded attention. I ignored her for a long time – her and the insomnia that kept me lying awake all night; the extreme tiredness during the day; the indigestion; the hair that was falling out more and more.

In February the voice finally made me listen: one evening I collapsed in my living room, deeply exhausted and shaken by howling convulsions.

Is it always just the stress to blame?

I knew I was stressed out at work. But my complaints lasted a lot longer than I had the professional problems, so that couldn’t be all. Instead, I guessed it had an underactive thyroid – at least my symptoms matched it. The disease can be got under control quite easily with a hormone pill.

So I went to my GP and asked for a blood test to check my thyroid levels. And met with skepticism straight away: “You know that there is a lot of disagreement about the thyroid values?” Asked the doctor and I nodded. Mostly one spoke of an underactive thyroid when the so-called TSH value was above 4.0, and one should also look at the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. However, recent studies suggest that a TSH of over 2.5 may be worth treating if symptoms are present. You just have to decide individually.

I didn’t feel that I was being taken seriously

I saw my suspicions more or less confirmed by the result of the blood test. My TSH was 3.7, the other values ​​weren’t good, but not really bad either. Nevertheless, my doctor remained skeptical – and asked me several times whether I was just a little too stressed. It was the first time that I didn’t feel taken seriously by him.

So I made an appointment with an endocrinologist who had years of experience in the thyroid field. I waited eight weeks for the appointment – and in the short period of time my symptoms not only worsened, there were more. My skin became dry and tight; the scales went crazy: I was gaining weight continuously, at the time of the appointment in April I was gaining almost six kilos without having made any changes to my diet.

The findings were unclear

The endocrinologist ordered a blood test and an ultrasound of the thyroid gland. That was the first time I heard the term I would begin to hate in the next two months: borderline. “The edges are borderline dark, but I can’t make a clear diagnosis.” My uncertainty grew: was I just getting into something?

The blood test was also inconclusive for the doctor: TSH at 3.4, the other values ​​- of course – “borderline”. On the other hand, the vitamin D and vitamin B12 levels were miserable. I should just relax a little and compensate for the vitamin deficiency with supplements, then it should soon be better. A next blood test is only necessary in October. I took my vitamins for the next few weeks, hoping for improvement – and instead fell into a deep hole.

The pointer of my scale kept going up, in mid-May I was almost ten kilos gain, no pants fit anymore. All symptoms worsened again: With my dry and strawy hair, which fell out again, I was now able to wallpaper each tile individually in the shower. Every trip to the toilet turned into a struggle because of severe constipation, once I couldn’t go at all for six days and suffered from a bloated stomach.

I started to hate myself

In addition, there was the beginning of self-hatred. More and more often in the morning I stood in front of the mirror and felt disgusted with myself. Before my weight, before the pale, dry skin, on which small red pimples formed everywhere, before the scarecrow hair. “You are fat and ugly. You can’t socialize like that,” I thought desperately and wanted to crawl back into bed. I didn’t want to go out anymore. I cried a lot. Felt misunderstood. And heard the term “stress” in my head again.

And yet I couldn’t and didn’t want to be satisfied with it. It was clear to me that I was developing the first signs of severe depression. I who have always been so strong and self-determined. So I pulled myself up and asked for a new blood test after six weeks. This time the TSH was 3.3, the other values ​​were of course borderline again.

“There is no way your symptoms can come from the thyroid gland. Perhaps you are just a little stressed.” That was the last I heard from the endocrinologist before I made a quick goodbye.

Finally a ray of hope!

Finally beaten, I snuck back to my family doctor, who had never seen me on the floor like this before. He went through all the symptoms with me again and the blood values ​​that he had requested from the endocrinologist. “Well, I want to deal with complaints and not values,” he said finally. Words I no longer expected to hear. So he prescribed a low dose of the thyroid hormone on a test basis and made me promise to keep a diary of my symptoms.

I am incredibly grateful for this test. Less than two weeks after taking the hormone pill for the first time, my indigestion went away completely. My sleep behavior has also leveled off again. Accordingly, the constant tiredness has subsided. The hair loss is gone.

The constant increase also stopped immediately. I haven’t been able to lose weight yet, but I’m still in the position for the right dose of tablets. Overall, I feel a lot better – and I’m glad that I kept fighting for myself, my body and my soul. Even a so-called expert doesn’t always know everything.