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Cytomel

Something Weird About My Thyroid (probably for women only)

Gentlemen, this would be a good time for you to read just about any other post than this one. Here, read about a hotel that hates my son because I’m going to talk about my thyroid and my period and the odd fact that they are related.

A normal period for me was five days and about a year ago it crept up to 7 days, a few months ago I was hitting 10 days and I realized that I was spending a third of my life on my period. I was also tired though I hadn’t thought that the two would be related. I made an appointment with my OB/GYN and told him my symptoms. He said he wanted to swap out my IUD (okay because it’s been 9 years but it would have been nice to go the full 10) and take a look inside my uterus (not okay because I don’t “do” pain) but he also suggested checking my thyroid. Incidentally, 15 years ago my OB was the only person to notice that I had a goiter and was gaining weight after giving birth. I have a much better GP now.

So off I went to my GP who did a full thyroid panel and found that I was a little low. In addition to increasing one of the medicines I take he insisted that I never use generic Synthroid or Cytomel again (I take both). He said that he’s seen too many of his patients suffer when pharmacies switch brands and that the dosages aren’t always reliable.

It took two weeks before I regained my lost energy and it’s been a month and four pounds fell off of me. My period is back to being normal too and my experience with thyroid hormones is that I don’t have the full impact until the second month.

These aren’t particularly expensive drugs, each one is about a dollar a pill without insurance. My insurance is pretty terrific (except when it doesn’t cover a $1,900 injection) so my cost is pennies a day.

I was diagnosed with Hashimotos Thyroiditis 15 years ago and I only just learned that your menstrual cycle is related to your thyroid and that this is one place I don’t want generics.