re thyroidal deficiency in article apr cc ic ac uk ewolff ps ic ac uk erik the viking writes hi my wife has aquired some thyroidal sp deficiency over the past year that gives symptoms such as needing much sleep coldness and proneness to gaining weight she has been to a doctor and taken the ordinary tests and her values were regarded as low the doctor and my wife are not very interested in starting medication as this deactivates the gland giving life long dependency to the drug hormone my questions are has anyone had heard of success in using this approach her values have been slowly but steadily sinking any comment on the probability of improvement although the doctor has told her to eat normally my wife has dieted vigorously to keep her weight as she feels that is part of keeping an edge over the illness condition may this affect the treatment development there are several different types of thyroid diseases which would cause a hypothyroid condition reduction in the output of the thyroid mainly thyroxin except for ones caused by infections the treatment is generally thyroxin pills hypothyroid conditions caused by infections usually disappear when the infection does this doesn t sound like the case with your wife thyroxin orally does shut down the thyroid through a feedback loop involving the pituitary i believe the pituitary thinks that the correct amount of thyroxin is being produced so it doesn t have to tell the thyroid to produce more this process is reversable i have hashimoto s thyroiditis an autoimmune condition and was on thyroxin for approx mo when my endocrinologist suggested i not take the pills for wks when i was retested for thyroxin levels they were normal i still get tested every mo because the condition might reappear the pills are safe and have very few side affects those mostly at beginning of treatment having a baby might be a problem and would at least require closer monitoring of hormone levels thyroxin controls energy production which explains sleepiness coldness and weight gain there is also water retention possibly around heart changes in vision and coarser hair and skin among other things i am not a doctor so i m sure i mistated something but the important thing is that thyroid problems are usually easily corrected and if they aren t corrected can cause problems in the rest of the body get a second opinion from a good endocrinologist and have him her explain things in detail to you and your wife eileen bauer
