A PSA of Sorts
Sunday, August 1st, 2010 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniThose who have been reading along at home will perhaps recall that I have an underachieving thyroid. It's no big deal; is, as I understand it, fairly common, or at least not uncommon; and perfectly treatable with a daily dose of a prescribed medication. You can read about it here, if you're interested.
Now, one of the interesting things about the hormones produced by your thyroid, my thyroid, and the thyroid of the woman at the coffee counter trying to decide if she wants a double-shot of espresso, is that "normal" is a range -- between X and Y is normal function.
With me so far?
Good.
The aim of medicating people with hypothyroidism is to supplement hormone levels to "normal," which makes perfect sense.
Except that -- and despite the fact that hypothyroidism is a pretty common problem for Women of a Certain Age -- apparently no one takes a baseline of "normal" thyroid function when you -- General You -- are young and healthy and presumably firing on all cylinders, so that there's an on-file "normal" to return you to, should your thyroid suddenly come up lazy.
This potentially leads to circular discussions with one's doctor about if one's supplemented hormone level is "normal" on the scale, but one is still experiencing symptoms, could it be that one had been used to a higher "normal" production level of hormone, back in the day?
So! If you're a young woman -- ask your doctor about a thyroid test the next time you get blood work, so you have a baseline on-file, should the day ever come when you need supplements. You might have to get a little chesty with him or her, but, hey, it's your blood and your future.
Now! Another cup of coffee, and to the couch!
Now, one of the interesting things about the hormones produced by your thyroid, my thyroid, and the thyroid of the woman at the coffee counter trying to decide if she wants a double-shot of espresso, is that "normal" is a range -- between X and Y is normal function.
With me so far?
Good.
The aim of medicating people with hypothyroidism is to supplement hormone levels to "normal," which makes perfect sense.
Except that -- and despite the fact that hypothyroidism is a pretty common problem for Women of a Certain Age -- apparently no one takes a baseline of "normal" thyroid function when you -- General You -- are young and healthy and presumably firing on all cylinders, so that there's an on-file "normal" to return you to, should your thyroid suddenly come up lazy.
This potentially leads to circular discussions with one's doctor about if one's supplemented hormone level is "normal" on the scale, but one is still experiencing symptoms, could it be that one had been used to a higher "normal" production level of hormone, back in the day?
So! If you're a young woman -- ask your doctor about a thyroid test the next time you get blood work, so you have a baseline on-file, should the day ever come when you need supplements. You might have to get a little chesty with him or her, but, hey, it's your blood and your future.
Now! Another cup of coffee, and to the couch!
Re: Still having symptoms?
Date: 2010-08-02 03:20 pm (UTC)Too much thyroid can be bad, too. Specifically, it can adversely affect bone density. They didn't use to have a test for too-high levels, but they do now. My mother's dose is way down since that was developed. She'd been taking too much for many, many years.
One problem with natural-thyroid supplements is that the concentration can vary quite a bit from one batch to the next.
(edited to fix editing mistake)