Synthroid and depression

I've been on synthroid now for about a year. My dosage is VERY little (0.075). My doctor keeps running blood tests every 3 months and assures me I am within the "lower-end" of the norm, but I still feel tired, sleep deprived, wake up with night-sweats and I keep gaining weight...

I am only 24 and have just been told that I need to take this medication for the rest of my life, it\s pretty depressing. I keep asking if there are other ways to lose weight and feel more energized. He tells me that I need to keep taking this medication and has put me on a "sleep hygeine" routine where I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.

Does this "disease" mean I will always be overweight and tired for the rest of my life? I would like to know if someone else with more experience with this medication can give any sort of advice? Feeling a little hopeless about it and not really interested in complaining to my doctor anymore.

Thanks:)

Wow! So glad and sad to find other sufferers. I wish our doctors would listen to us and take us seriously! Why are they stuck on forcing Synthroid on us? At this point, I think I'd rather not take any Synthroid. I stumbled upon this site while looking for something I might take to counteract the effects of Synthroid. I had to halve my 112 mg pills because of the side effects: frequents headaches, bloating, weight gain, irritability and anxiety, dry mucus membranes (eyes, nose, throat, etc.), allergies, muscle fatigue, achy joints. Of course, my doctor is slowly upping the dosage again, because my TSH is chronically high, but I feel like sh*t, physically and mentally. I used to feel so much more normal and like myself before I was diagnosed and "forced" to take Synthroid.

I suggest to anyone that has Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (type of Hypothyroidism) to have a blood test done for Celiac Disease. There has been research done linking Celiac Disease and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Celiac Disease can be controlled by a gluten-free diet (wheat, rye, and barley free). In the US, not many doctors recognize/know of this link. I have been hypothyroid for 20 years (had Hodgkin's Disease (cancer) - radiation/chemo at age 16) I have 2 sisters with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and were iron and B12 deficient. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis 3 months ago with iron and B12 deficiency. I have been on a gluten-free diet for 2 months now. My dosage of synthroid (levothyroxine) was 175 mcg and now is down to 137 mcg. I hope that I am one of the lucky ones that will have their antibodies to their thyroid normalized (no more synthroid!) I have a couple of days left before my next blood test and I hope that it goes down more. I am feeling better now than I have in a very long time. I have attached a link for those of you interested. It is an endocrine article from Finland outling the link between Celiac Disease and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (among other things). I hope that this helps some of you. http://edrv.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/23/4/464

I've been on Synthroid for 8 months after gaining 10 pounds in two months. The symptoms started to appear when my Mom was very ill. Doctor said it was caused by stress and started me on 25 mcg of Synthroid. My reading at that time was 5.56. I had blood work done every 4 weeks,and the numbers are going down (1.8 last reading), but so is the quantity of my hair, which I see all over my white tile. My weight hasn't budged even though I am dieting. My doctor upped me to 100 mcgs. My blood work is not good - low white count, low lymphocytes, borderline anemic. Mom died, and I didn't get any better. I feel sick all the time and it's difficult for my husband to understand how bad I feel. I've tried to get my doctor to prescrive Armour, but he doesn't even return my phone calls. When I see him in the office, he keeps telling me it takes time. I hate living this way and want to stop the pills completely.

I have been on Synthroid since about 1995. I had a thyroidectomy and do not have a thyroid anymore. I have been on 0.175 mcg for about 10 years and did not have any side effects except for fatigue and a little depression.Everything else was pretty good. My TSH is registering low so my doctor moved me to 0.1 mcg of Synthroid and 5 micrograms of Cytomel. I took this for about three weeks and for the last 1.5 weeks have had awful headaches and the dryest eyes ever. Something, I have not experienced before. My doctor keeps saying he wants to help me but does not listen to
any of my symptoms. I actually pulled off the symptoms from the list online of hypothyroidism and have 15 out of about 20. I am wondering why I felt so much better on the higher dose than this low dose. Can anyone releate. I am starting to think maybe my body is not processing this right. The funny thing is is that my lab work came back with normal results today, which means my doc is probably going to keep me where I am and I feel the worst I have felt in ten years.

I have been on synthroid for about 6 months now. Some of the side effects I have been experiencing are numerous.I have hair loss, sometimes I get so ill that no one can stand to be around me, my weight has gone up about 30 pounds, my cholesterol levels went sky high so now I'm taking Crestor, I'm bloated most times, I have episodes where my face flushes and gets so red that it feels like its on fire, and now I've just started experiencing burning and aching of the legs, I'm tired a lot too! My doctor said I would lose the weight but every time I go for check ups and get on the scale it just keeps going up. I would like to know if anyone else out there is experiencing the burning and achy legs because I have been tested for everything and they can't find out what is going on. They of course say it's not the medication.It seems to never be. Does anyone feel me??

I have read a lot of these blogs and I am seeing that many other people have the same side effects. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism when I was in 6th or 7th grade I think and I am now a high school senior so about 5 years taking Synthroid. the doctors said that my antibodies had completely destroyed my thyroid gland so I wasn't getting any of the hormones I needed which became very noticeable when I started gaining weight and loosing energy in 5th grade. I haven't really seen any weight gain in a while but I still look like I am overweight. I am 5'6 and 130 lbs so I am about average. Side effects that are also occurring are rapid mood changes, one minute I am happy and something sad happens or I think about something and ill be tearing up. I feel depressed a lot. I am currently on 150 mcg. also during 9th and 10th grade I was put on this drug to stop my puberty so that I could grow more while on the Synthroid I guess it helped a little with height but I still look like a freshman. I don't know if I should stop taking it or keep taking it because I stopped for about a month once and started getting really sick, I would get really bad nose bleeds at random, had constant migraines and felt sick to my stomach. I started taking the Synthroid again and felt fine. I really don't know what to do.

I was born without a thyroid gland so I can't compare the way I feel now to the way I would've felt with a thyroid. I've been on Synthroid my entire life (22 years), and I'm up to 112 mcg now. I am very skinny (5'5", 104 lbs) and feel constantly fatigued no matter how many hours I sleep, what I eat, and how much exercise I get. I periodically get pain in my hip joints, heart palpitations, and intense mood swings. My thoughts race but I have very little physical energy. I feel restless and gloomy almost all the time for absolutely no good reason. My doctor tells me I'm depressed but I honestly have no reason to be depressed and I wish she would see it as a symptom instead of a diagnosis. I graduated from a good college, I've got a job I like, I have friends, I enjoy life and my hobbies, yet I feel overwhelmingly sad. This does not seem like depression to me.

I find that after I do aerobics I get a tightness in my chest, which makes me worry about my heart, but again my doctor doesn't seem to think this is cause for concern. I have been irritable/fatigued for YEARS and I suspect I'll feel this way for the rest of my life. The worst of it started when I hit 16 years old and started the 112 mcg. My tests are always normal and it frustrates me that my doctor disregards my symptoms. I've tried other doctors, but they always send me away with my 'normal' test results. Can anybody help?

I have been taking Synthroid for at least 10 years. I am on a very high dosage now175mcg. I have been on a lower dose but my counts were still low so my doctor put my dosage higher. I have been having a tremendous amount of body aches including finger joint aches and right flank problems. I have taken x-rays and various tests to determine what the pain is but I feel that after reading much of the side effects from this web site, much of what I am experiencing is from the Synthroid or Levothyroxin. I now feel that I need to take matters into my own hands and do more natural healing. Many doctors don't connect the dots to determine the real cause of your concerns.

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in April of this year (2007) kind of by accident through a routine checkup. I had gained a bit of weight over the past two years, but that was really my only symptom. I was begun on 75 mcg of a generic brand of Synthroid, levothyroxine. Since I began this medication, I have rapidly gained another 15 pounds despite a 1,000 calorie per day diet. I retain fluid horribly. My ankles, wrists, hands and face swell daily. My muscles ache, especially my legs, upon walking across a room. I'm fatigued, short of breath. My LDL cholesterol level has skyrocketed in only three months and now I'm being told I need to be on a statin drug. I cry frequently and feel uncharacteristically anxious and irritable, but this could be due to the frustration I am experiencing with the loss of my sense of well-being. In essence, I felt much better before being placed on the medication. I may, in fact, discontinue the medication totally and see if over time I begin to feel better. Like so many other stories I'm hearing, my doctor seems totally unconcerned.

I've only been taking synthroid for a little over 2 months and not only has my husband noticed behavioral changes with me but I feel them as well. If I didn't know what depression felt like, I would say that would be the problem, however; it's a lot more than that. I've felt "sad", as though my heart were breaking and then I get angry and have the "I don't care" attitude. Mood swings galore which is very unlike me. I'm naturally a very outgoing and friendly person who has turned to the irate, don't bother me person who likes to be alone. Though these changes have taken place, I feel they may just be temporary which is why I will remain on the med. It's truly a pain in the neck to experience such changes and not be able to so to speak "control" them on your own, but in the long run, if it means being healthier and losing the weight that needs to be lost (on me), then for me, it's worth it. Thank God my husband understands all this!!!

Does anyone have any side effects which affect voice quality - husky, airy or weakness in the voice speaking or singing? I'm hypothyroid, 200mcgs synthroid daily, some depression, insomnia, weight gain and struggling with getting back to my pre-hypothyroid state of well being.