![]() The truth is, there’s overlap in the symptoms of mild hypothyroidism and perimenopause, which can begin as early as the mid-30s. It's the likely cause of your weight gain, exhaustion, and thinning hair, not to mention your persistent malaise. These days, you hear a lot about the thyroid, especially if you're a woman (we're five to eight times more inclined than men to develop thyroid problems, according to the American Thyroid Association). Over the next three years, her doctor increased her dose three times each time, Krusinski got a surge of energy, then returned to her listless, moody self. Anticipating a miracle, Krusinski, too, tried levothyroxine. But after ten years of physical ailments, plus unexplained weight gain and depression, Krusinski went to a series of endocrinologists until she was finally diagnosed with mild hypothyroidism-as well as Hashimoto's disease, an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the thyroid (the most common cause of hypothyroidism). Like Newman's, her diagnostic tests-for anemia, mono, and thyroid dysfunction-came back normal. She also had hard-to-ignore symptoms, starting after she had her first child at 29: cold hands and feet, extremely dry skin, frequentĬonstipation, numbing fatigue. Then there's Jenn Krusinski of Oak Park, Illinois. Although the drug typically takes a few weeks to have an effect, Newman's fatigue lifted completely the morning after she took the very first pill. Newman's doctor told her it wasn't guaranteed to work, but they decided to give it a try. The standard treatment for hypothyroidism is levothyroxine, a synthetic hormone most patients take daily for life. Her thyroid-the butterfly-shaped gland at the base of the throat that governs how the body's cells use energy-didn't seem to be producing enough thyroid hormone to keep her metabolism functioning normally. ![]() She'd been sluggish from stress and work before, but this was different-her exhaustion went "bone-deep."Īfter blood tests for mononucleosis, anemia, and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) all came back normal, Newman settled into a diminished version of her old life: Since childhood she had been a focused, ambitious morning person now her thinking was fuzzy, her motivation flagged, and she had to drag herself from bed.īut Newman had her thyroid checked twice more, and in 2014, the results put her in the range for mild, also known as subclinical, hypothyroidism. She tried to sleep it off, but fatigue dogged her like a shadow. "It was like a hangover minus the alcohol," says the now-34-year-old assistant professor of biology at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. One morning in 2011, Cathy Newman woke up in a stupor.
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