Thyroid medications symptoms and conditions

I have been on synthyroid for at least 7 years, and I still constantly battle fatigue and mood swings. All the doctors thought it was in my head and the last one suggested anti-depressants which I wouldn't go for. I feel depressed because I wake up tired almost every day or at least after 2 hours of being awake I can still just lie down and sleep! It's awful when just the thought of having to walk a block takes huge effort. I used to go to the gym every day but now it takes so much effort to do the smallest thing. I finally have a new doctor who has started to additionally give me Liothyronine (T3) which has given me new hope. I seem to feel better. We are still tweaking the dosage, first it was too low, now too high, but I am hopeful with the right "combo" we can get it right, if not I am considering going to a homeopathic doctor or just going off the stuff entirely, except I am not sure whether that will be worse.....If anyone has any advice or comments, please reply!!!!

I have been on Levoxyl for years. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's when I was 13 years old. I'm 35 now. I have been on every medication made and this is the only one that didn't make me want to sleep all the time. I have suffered from Depression my whole life, but that started before the thyroid too. My mom was one of the first people to be treated with Iodine when she was a kid and it worked for years then her thyroid acted up again in her 50's. When she was younger it was Hyper and now it went Hypo. She takes Levoxyl now too and it's been great. I think part of my problem has always been a lack of exercise. A lot of the symptoms everyone has mentioned went away for me when I started hiking and walking regularly. After being inactive for so long due to the depression and exhaustion because of the poor diagnosis of my thyroid medications for so long, my blood pressure was too low, my circulation was poor and my depression got worse . Now with a combination of meds for my depression and my Levoxyl, I don't feel like there is a giant weight on me when I wake up in the morning. So many of the meds described have similar side affects I've stopped judging by side affects and rather my energy level, my weight, goiter size and sleep pattern.
Just my experience. Good luck to everyone

IVE BEEN ON SYNTHROID FOR A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AND ITS BEEN HELL. I WAS STARTED OUT ON A 100MCG MY PERIOD STOPPED I HAD MOOD SWINGS HOT FLASHES AND MY IRREGULAR HEART BEAT IM 31 YEARS OLD I GAINED 42 POUNDS IN 1 YEAR MY FAMILY DOCTOR CHANGE MY SYNTHROID TO 125MCG WERE THEN I WAS RECEIVING TO MUCH NOW IM ON 112 WERE I HAVE BEEN IN REAL BAD LEG AND FEET PAIN AND AWAITING A CURE FOR THIS AWFUL ILLNESS IF ANYONE HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE EMAIL ME B/C IM ALSO TRYING TO HAVE A BABY PLEASE REPLY ASAP

Hi ladies,

I just finished my last pack of Yasmin on Thursday because I felt I was pumped with hormones. I googled "coming off the pill Yasmin" and came across your comments.
I was originally put on Yasmin by my Doctor as I had put on a few pounds. I lost that weight with exercise (can't diet) but I have never lost my DD breasts (I was a C cup before Yasmin) and I've a tummy which when I bloat the week before my period, I look pregnant!
I've been experiencing a lot of the negative side effects of Yasmin over the last year and I was beginning to think I was going mad.
I suffer from very bad headaches, water retention, bloating and loss of sex drive.
In the last 2 or 3 months I'm now suffering with nausea, leg cramps, sore breasts, anxiety and feeling down.
As most of these symptoms have occurred in the last year, I just got fed up. I've been on the pill for 14 years (on and off), and on Yasmin for at least 6 years. I'm now 32, I'm married and would love a child.
I feel by coming off this pill, my body will settling into a routine before I hopefully conceive.
So glad I found your comments and I'm not alone in how my body feels.
Thank You.

I have had thyroid disease for 6 years. I just had my medicine increase less than one week ago from 125 mcg to 150 mcg. The endocrinologist did this with a lab result from over 6 months ago and I was never retested before he upped my dose. 2 days after my new dose I broke out in a rash head to toe. The next day I started itching and went to my doctor and she said I have no idea what is going on with you. Then I went to the Pharmasist and he said you are having an allergic reaction to the dye in the 150 mcg blue tablets (125 mcg are white). The following day I got new medication I now am taking 3 50 mcg tablets. But I now am swollen ankles to feet and elbows to hands. My hands are like balloons. When I go to bed at night my hands are completely numb. Has anyone else had any symptoms like this?? Help I cannot figure this out. I am thinking that I may be over medicated. Thank you Heidi

I have been taking Synthroid since Jan. 2006, am on 100mcg per day and all test results have been 'normal', I have been told to take this medication in the morning an hour before eating anything, if I do this...I have headache all day, I can't eat after an hour because I am so sick at my stomach there's no way. I feel hungry, but feel like if I eat it's coming right back up. Am having serious joint pain in hips, knees, elbows and wrists, my neck hurts really bad as well. I wake up to arms asleep anymore and just feel like I haven't slept in months...am very weak and very tired all of the time.

I have found that if I take my pill at night this gets a little better, but holy cow, don't tell your Dr. your taking it before bed...no, take it of a day. (don't know why this is a major thing?)

Anymore I feel like I am walking around with flu symptoms constantly, and the Synthroid hasn't done anything weight wise with me, because I was so HYPERthyroid before the RAI, I was very thin and looked like a bag of bones, have been waiting and excited about putting on weight...at one point I stopped taking the Synthroid and let myself go HYPO just so I could gain weight, it worked and I got up to about 130 pounds, was very HYPO so they told me critical that I get back on meds...I lost it again because it makes me so sick I can't eat.

NO-ONE can tell me the Synthroid is not the cause of this problem, if I stop taking it I feel WONDERFUL, but my test reults are bad. After a while of course my feet become numb and I end up having some bad hypo symptoms, have tried breaking pills in half....oh Lord no, need it all...

Have been told they are thinking about raising my dosage again anyway, I can't do this, I will break down in the office if they try to raise it. Right now my TSH is fine but my T4 is 'a tad bit' off. I am already an emotional wreck, if they raise my dosage I am going to try and go a different route with this, am on my 3rd Dr. at this point anyway...

My other messages didn't post so I'll try again--- Depending on where you look, oral contraceptives are contra-indicated for use with thyroid medications. Estrogens bind with thyroid hormones so your body can't use them-- then you sufer the effects of low thyroid hormones, like fatigue and weight gain. My doctors have freely given me BCP even though I suffer from hypothyroidism. If you do alot of research you'll see that not only do bcp cause thyroid imbalances, but so do some foods (such as eating alot of soy.) Family doctors get next to no training in endocrinology and aren't aware of the side-effects of bcp.

And on to negative side effects--- after 2 months on Yasmin I suffered an enormous grand mal seizure and had to be taken to the ER. I have never had a seizure prior to taking Yasmin. When I looked, seizures are a barely mentioned side effect and considered rare. I"d love to know how many women have had seizures and just didn't report it or didn't realize it was the Yasmin.
My neurologist can find nothing that might have caused my seizure (like a tumour, etc). Although my family doctor won't say Yasmin was the cause, I have been ordered off of it. (gladly!) Coincidence?

I think women need to be aware that taking Yasmin has huge consequences. I had taken another tri-phasic bcp for a decade just fine. I went on Yasmin because of the low dose and thought it would be better for me. Now it has cost me weeks of work, truama to my family, and a very long, difficult recovery from the seizure. (I pulled every muscles, I couldn't think clearly, and I bit my tongue so badly I couldn't eat for days.)
Yasmin is not candy like doctors make it out to be. I recently heard and expert call bcp the biggest human trial in history. There is every chance enormous numbers of women will suffer awful consequences (like breat cancer) after years and years of use! As well, Yasmin is so new on the market none of us can be certain it is safe. It wouldn't surprise me if this drug is pulled from the market somewhere down the line. Everyone on this sight seems to be suffering terribly because of it.

I been taking Etodolac for about six weeks now and I'm experiencing severe hair loss, about 1/4 of my hair now in the past six weeks. Could the Etodolac be causing this? I'm also taking Pepcid along with the Etodolac. I have taken Thyroid medications too for the past 25 years. I am breaking out in large bloody spots under my skin on my forearms only. This also occurred while I was taking Celebrex too. I did not have any hair loss while taking Celebrex though. Can the hair loss be coming from the Etodolac? Anyone out there experiencing these sympthoms? Please let me hear about it.

I am 26, and I had my thyroid removed in November 2003 as a result of having thyroid cancer. I have been on Levoxyl ever since. The first few months, I had trouble sleeping and even taking a 5 minute nap during the day would cause me to be unable to sleep at night. In November 2004 (after a year of adjusting my dosage), they said my thyroid levels were at goal. At the time, I was feeling pretty good (sleeping well, feeling healthy and energetic). But the past month or so, I have been extremely tired and quite moody/depressed. I cry a lot - many times for no reason at all. I had my thyroid levels checked a couple weeks ago, and they said htey at at the goal level. I was talking with a family friend today who is a nurse and told her that I have been extremely tired and fatigue easily. She said that she thinks that the thyroid medications do have side effects that we are not always aware are really from that. Let me know if you have found any solutions to the moody/depressed feelings and emotions and the extreme tiredness. Please email me at ****** if you have any solutions! Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for their courage to post their effects. I was tested 4 months ago and found out I was hypothyroid at 27 yrs old. I started on .25mcg and now at .50 daily of levothyroxine. I have developed a horrible skin rash on my neck, chest, shoulders, and upper back. It looks like small blisters/acne, like chickenpox. Ive never had a skin problem till I took the medication. I have consulted with several doctors and they have given me the usual skin creams, etc. but nothing works and its getting worse. It seems to me that no one knows what to do and I am the only one doing an y research on it. Now, I have an appointment with a dermatologist but my pharmacist said that many thyroid medications can have this reaction and there is little to be done to cure it. Yikes!!!