Antibodies & symptoms but apparently not hypo YET

The_reveller said:

Hi,

I am 28 and have had thyroid test done evey few years as I have a strong family history of thyroid disease; my brother, father, fathers-mother and probably many more before that. We had hoped that I might have got lucky as most of my family develop symptoms and are diagnosed when they are in their early twenties.

All my previous tests had come back normal until a few months ago. Despite moving out of London and having a much improved lifestyle I felt really generally rubbish, exhausted, finding it harder to exercise, mildly and unexplainably depressed, my hair had become fuzzy and unmanageable and when I walk too fast or do excersise at the gym (treadmill/ rowing machine/cross trainer) my ankles and lower legs would become painful.

I hadn't had a thyroid test for a little while and after looking up my different symptoms they pointed in the direction of Hashimotos disease/Graves disease.

My research also showed that many of the problems i have had over the last few years (some I have complained about to the doctors and some I haven't) may also be related. I have had bouts of migraines, 2 periods each month, dry skin, boils, period pain and heavy bleeding.

The final straws were that I was finding it difficult to hold conversations at work. I would struggle to think of the words I was trying to say and was finding it hard to understand what other people were saying to me when things were slightly out of context.

After registering with a new doctor, I arranged an apointment, he seemed to take me more seriously than previous doctors and arranged for a full blood work up testing everythign from rheumatoid antibodies to B12 and iron deficiency.

Everything came back okay after 2 weeks with the exception of the antibodies test that came back a few weeks after that. Apparently I am not yet hypothyroid but my body is producing antibodies against my thyroid.

Just after having the tests done I caught a cold and ater a few days of feeling worse than I had before I seemed to swing back to being okay again. I felt fine for a few weeks (even my hair was in a good enough condition to wear down a few times.) before my symptoms started gradually coming back again. Thankfully they are not yet as bad and I know what seems to be causing them and so have more of a fighting attitude.

Sorry about the long story, other people don't really understand that a single disease can create so many minor (and not so minor) complaints.

Anyway...

Most of the information I have read about seems to refer to Hashimotos hypothyroidism and the symptoms of being hypothyroid but there doesn't seem to be much info on which symptoms are caused by the thyroid not functioning correctly and which are caused by the antibodies running riot around your body.

Any thoughts, or anyone know any good links about this issue?

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