Today my doctor officialy diagnosed me in the low thyroid zone.

The whole thyroid thing makes my head spin; T3, Tr, TSH, yadda yadda. My mushy mind will NEVER get what these numbers mean. My Tsh is 3.64 which is a little higher than 6 months ago. And my free T4 is 0.71, and T3 is 2.76, both of which I believe she said is rather normal (???)

What I'm a bit perplexed by is this: in reading about hypothyroid, I read that one of the symptoms is cold hands and feet, and that you can almost self-diagnose if one takes an underarm temperature for several days in a row (in bed a.m.) and finds it 97.something (I forget, but under 98 degrees). I have just about every symptom, EXCEPT that one. In fact ever since menopause (I'm 62), I have been on the warm side, often throwing blankets off at night. I'm not talking hot flashes, just cold doesn't bother me like it USED to pre-menopause.

My other symptoms....fatigue, muddle-headed, dry-side skin, have been normal life for me forever so hard to know what's normal. I do also have LOTS of hair fall-out, but I also have lots of hair always growing in, so my hair is not thin (helps to keep it super-short).

Anyway, it's the low body temperature which seems to be a big clue to being hypo, and I simply do not have that. Anyone else?

I've been working with my thyroid issues since 1991 and in all I've read, etc. an "ideal" tsh is 1. Mine is lower than 1 now since I've been upping my Armour thyroid med for the last 4 months or so.

I'm always colder in the winter months, but summer months Warmer. My oral temp still runs 97 something....think I'll take it right now...shock of shocks 98.3!!

Anyway I always run warmer in the summer vs winter even here in So. Cal.

A great place to get great help is: realthyroidhelp.com

I've been going over there for about 6 months and learned so much from those great folks. Many over there are taking pretty high doses of dessicated thyroid and feel so much better. I was at 90 mg for 5+ yrs and have been upping my dose since I've learned so much over there. My doc is willing to help me.

So many docs are so not "in the know" with thyroid. They go by strictly the numbers and not how a person feels....jam

[This Message was Edited on 07/28/2009]

Thank you for your comments, Jam.

The more I try to learn about thyroid disorders, the more confused I get. But I get confused pretty easily!

Then there's the "adrenal fatigue" complication....the symptoms are pretty much the same as being hypothyroid, but taking thyroid medication (with adrenal fatigue), could make the situation worse. sheesh.

Thanks for the link to the other website. I've gone there and it is certainly full of information.

but when I went on Armour back in 2002, I was NOT taking any adrenal support. After 10 yrs of not being dianogsed my D.O. put me on Armour on the phone, he called in a script and my depression lifted in 2 days.

But over the years since, I do take an adrenal support, Drenatrophen PMG by Standard Process.

I've had many many years of stress hence the adrenal meltdown.

On that board so much info is based on the book: Stop The Thyroid Maddness which I highly recommend to read.

And so much personal experiences. It's a great group of support people...

Hi:

I tell people to aim their Free T3 and Free T4 at mid ranges to see if they feel their best there at. Your FT4 is too low and the TSH is too high (as jam says). You have many, many other hypO symptoms! You don't have to have the low body temperature to really be hypOthyroid.

{{{hugs}}} :-)

I started this thread by declaring that I was on "the warm side"...so, could I really be hypo?

Well, to my surprise turns out my temperatures ARE low! I've begun to try the morning temperature testing which is said to be a good indication of one's real thyroid condition. I've only done this a few mornings, but have discovered my temperatures have been 95.4 and 96.5...certainly under the desirable 98.+ range. This came as a real surprise to me because I definitely FEEL warm in the morning; usually needing to take bedclothes off and stick feet out from blankets even in cool-ish weather.

I will say it was confusing as just exactly how to measure my temperature as many websites had conflicting advice; use ONLY a mercury thermometer...no, use a digital...take it under the armpit (keeping it there 10 minutes), no use the oral reading! Well, I've only used a digital so far and have tried both armpit and mouth (different days, ha!) and both read low.

I really am hoping to avoid having to take meds for this, and am now trying Prolamine Iodine by Standard Process. About 2 months now, no changes yet!

Anyway, I was really amazed to discover that my FEELING warm apparently had nothing to do with my actual low body temperature. Weird.