I want to stop my thyroid meds...

Here's the deal;

About 6 months ago I went to my OB/GYN. I was having symptoms of what I concluded to be Hypothyroidism before I even went to see him. I did research on my symptoms only after my mother suggested it. She herself has thyroid problems.
So, the Dr. does some tests and sees that my TSH levels are indeed a little low. He prescribes me a BC pill for my acne and suggests I follow up with my GP about the TSH level. So.... I go see my GP and he does another blood test and prescribes me 75mcg of Levothyroxine. A TS4 med. I took that for 30 days and then returned for another blood test. After that test they upped my dosage to 88mcg.

My concern here is that I am damaging my liver and taking medication that is actually not needed. I already have seasonal allergies and this time of year I have to take Zyrtec just to get through the day. So, I started doing even more research about Hypothyroidism, some sites connect the condition with fluoride, some sites say that the TS4 drugs don't work anyway...

Then I started thinking...I just had a baby about a year ago and as many woman know, your body kind of goes through this crazy sort of shock afterwards. Up and down hormones for the most part, postpartum depression and the like. Upon further reading I found that some woman have what is know as Postpartum Thyroiditis.

postpartum thyroiditis is an inflammation of the thyroid that initially occurs in the first year after childbirth, miscarriage, or induced abortion. It's considered a variation of autoimmune thyroiditis, also known as Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

The most common course for postpartum thyroiditis is mild hypothyroidism which begins two to six months after delivery, and then resolves as the thyroid normalizes.

Link I have read other sources but this is more straight forward.

My symptoms began right about the time my son was turning 4 months old, I lived with the problems for 2 months, and that's when I asked my Dr. about Hypothyroidism. Thinking back on this first visit/blood test, he never once asked me if I had any postpartum symptoms, or heck, I don't think that was even taken into consideration as a cause. So... I want to stop taking this medication but, my doctor is unwilling to consider postpartum as being the issues and does not want to do any further testing. My above source suggests that the thyroid issue resolves on it's own over the course of 6 months to a year but how can I know that it has resolved if I am taking this medication?

Like I said, I hate taking more medications that I really need, and I really feel my problems are more postpartum related then they are actual Hypothyroidism. Please share your experiences, suggests,or any insight here would be much appreciated.

[color=dodgerblue]I would consider getting a second opinion and more blood work.

I never had a health problem in my life until after I had my kids.

After I had them, I had rupturing ovarian cysts, kidney stones, horrid PMS and symptoms that mimic Endometriosis (had a Lap done... no endo)...

Having a baby messes with your chemistry and it is very likely that these new found symptoms could be temporary.

Your body creates TSH4 from iodine. There are many forms of iodine on the market, however most are in inorganic binding such as potassium iodate. Frequently adequate iodine supplementation and some moderate exercise will do the trick. Unles your physician advised you that you cannot transform iodine into TSH4 - which is actually a rare condition.
The problem is that you can overdose on inorganic iodine and some folks have allergic symptoms. It also has bad taste.
I take a natural form of blue iodine, a Hungarian invention by Dr. Török. (Experiments of iodine prophylaxis have been conducted for years on farm animals then humans deficient in iodine and it is duly certified by scientific boards.)

It looks like ink and has no taste. What happens is that in contrast to the inorganic form, this is only used in the body when your liver secretes a certain enzyme - which it will only do if you are deficient in iodine on any given day. The rest of the "ink" is eliminated. This page is the inventor's, it is in Hungarian but they will answer inquiries in English: Blue iodine email: [email protected]
I translated some of the science papers into English myself but have no financial interest - I just use the stuff - comes in a small bottle and you take a few drops daily.

Another in-between solution is to take a lot of fucus seaweed every day - you can get it dried at Korean stores.
Energy healing is also good directly applied to thyroids - Reiki etc.

I once was hyperthyroid, destroyed my thyroid. Went to hypo. All i can say what a horrible journey this has been for me and im sure others. im not sure what was worst being hyper or being hypo. 1 thing i do know is hypo can mess your body up bad without meds if you are truly hypo.

I walk my daughter to school which is around 6 blocks and for 2 months i simply could not do it. I could barley get to the restroom i was so sore. i mean bad very bad.

with that said i would never tell another what to do about their own body. 1 thing i do know is the doctor doesnt have your best interest in mind. My interactions with them have been horrible, they are egocentric think they know more about your body than you or rather what your body is telling you. maybe try going the next 3-6 months without taking the meds, and go from there. But i do know if you are actually hypo those 6 months will be hell.

Best to luck to ya and your journey!

anytime your doc doesn't want to entertain you wanting more testing or exploration of a theory of yours its time to look for another opinion. Doctors work for the patients, but try telling them that (or thats how it should be but its an insured/funded gray area now). Never ever let your doctor bully you. I won't elaborate much but I have a serious medical condition that a doctor once maintained was nothing at all and refused to consider it as more. The condition I suspected was diagnosed 5 years later by 2 panels of doctors using my previous doctor's original lab results as a starting point. Fight for your health always.

It's great to come here to get more information from members here at ATS, but I must stress that you do not take medical advice from strangers on the internet.

Getting information towards making your decision is great, but please see professionals before making any final decisions.

Sorry u are having so many problems I can definately relate. My daughter is now 15months and my wife suffered some of the same problems as ur having now.
First and foremost I am not a doctor and any information given is just from my experiences and everyone's situation is different so please don't make a change in ur meds or approach on this info it is solely for insight only ( sorry but have to protect self in these dire times).
After about 2 months post partum my wife started experiencing some of the symptoms u are having, my wife is a NP so she sorta knew what was going on but didn't want to chance it as she is not a obgyn so she consulted her obgyn who is a close friend of ours and he too was worried and wanted a series of testing due to the fact that ppd effect something like 1 in 10 mothers after delivery. What I didn't know is that ppd can be brought on by PTD and has been proven to correlate in cases due to the commonness of PTD.
So her doctor started with a T-4 test, an antibody thyroid test and the TSH test. When the results came back they were positive for a thyroid condition and her antibody counts were off, so after many months of different meds and test my wife and her doctor descided to stop the meds and see after a month how everything was looking.
Luckily my wife didn't need more treatment and it cleared up after a few months of different treatments but again everyone's case is different.
I hope this helped in some way and I will pray for u too have a speeedy recovery.

I am not a professional and do not offer any "cures", but....

My girlfriend was over weight and had thyroid issues, she was put on medications for it. She had the same concerns and worries, and wanted other opinions, some were worse than the original opinions.

When she came to live with me, I changed her whole diet around and got her to stop taking all her "unnecessary" medications. Some of the big things she had to alter was her dietary choices, like sodas, fast foods, and foods with preservatives.

Over the course of a few months she began to shed tons of weight, normalizing down to what her weight should be for height and build. After a year of eating mostly organic, she lost over 100 lbs and hadn't had any thyroid issues at all. She returned to a local doctor and they told her she didn't have any thyroid issues, no medications needed.

The moral of the story.... you are what you eat, and real non-toxic foods can and will normalize your systems. Sodas are terrible and do a number on thyroid issues, also staying away from preservatives and fluoride as best you can also improves health and allergy symptoms... in my experience. I've helped other friends lose up to 140 lbs and they are medication free and doing great.

Normalize your diet and the rest usually falls into place. Damage may be done, but the body heals itself over time and can return to perfect health with a good, clean food diet.

Pfft the only reason professionals are that is because they get paid by big pharma.


my aunt has been battling thyroid problems for a year now...

MY advice to you is Go see as many Dr's as you can they just now a year later have found out it was Lymphoma cancer the entire time Dr's are just practicing I find much more info from people who have gone through this than any Dr. I trust my veterinarian more than any Dr I have seen thats sad.

Supplement your diet with selenium and Chromium Picolinate to help moderate thyroid function and discuss it with your GP. If your GP knows anything he/she would also discuss dieting with you, which is super important when it comes to your thyroid. Milk thistle is one of the best things for liver health. People that use certain things that are way more harsh on the liver than the meds you are taking use milk thistle with great success. SAM-e is very good for keeping your liver healthy among other things.

But you need to keep taking your thyroid meds because if you don't it could come down to life or death, eventually.

Originally posted by kimish
Supplement your diet with selenium and Chromium Picolinate to help moderate thyroid function and discuss it with your GP. If your GP knows anything he/she would also discuss dieting with you, which is super important when it comes to your thyroid. Milk thistle is one of the best things for liver health. People that use certain things that are way more harsh on the liver than the meds you are taking use milk thistle with great success. SAM-e is very good for keeping your liver healthy among other things.

But you need to keep taking your thyroid meds because if you don't it could come down to life or death, eventually.

edit on 14-2-2012 by kimish because: you know my steez

I just googled Selenium and read a little snip about iodine deficiency causing an enlarged heart (I was diagnosed with that at age 11) and hypothyroidism...
Lord, that has got me thinking now.... I will definitely look into these supplements more.

Just an update for anyone who may come across this thread at a later date with the same dilemma.

This past week, I sought the counsel of three other doctors. The last and final doctor having seen the outcomes of my previous 6 blood tests, decided to test for something the others had not. Vitamin D deficiency. Low and behold I have very low D, and as some may know having low D can "cause" Hypothyroidism or low thyroid hormones. It was also found that I had low iodine levels which can account for some of the hypothyroid like symptoms.

Anyway, I am glad I sought out some different opinions and in the end it really took a doctor that had a real personality and interest in exploring my own hypothesis, which really was a combination of a few things to cause one thing...

I am no longer taking the Thyroid meds.