Menopause and Your Thyroid

If you’re going through menopause and are having a hard time of it, you might have more going on.

Research shows that about one in 12 women aged 50 years or older suffer from inadequate thyroid function. The combination of low estrogen and low thyroid hormones can make symptoms like hot flashes, insomnia, fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, dry skin and thinning hair worse.

Having your blood tested to see if your Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) is high is very important. Many women have normal TSH levels and still have symptoms of low metabolism, such as fatigue, brain fog, sluggish digestion, low sex drive, heat and cold intolerance; some of the symptoms associated with menopause.

In addition to checking thyroid hormone levels, I suggest checking your body temperature to see if it is consistently low, below 37.5 deg C. If your body temperature is consistently low, there is a good chance that low metabolism is contributing to your symptoms.

Low metabolism is often caused by low levels of T3, the active form of thyroid hormone. Some people have trouble converting T4 to T3, a problem many doctors simply don’t recognise. T4 is the most commonly prescribed form of thyroid replacement hormones such as Eltoxin, Euthyrox or Synthroid.

T3 is also available as a drug (Tertroxin or Diotroxin) and some women do better when they get T3 instead of T4, or in addition to T4. T3 is even better tolerated and more effective when administered as a sustained release compounded medication.

You can discuss taking a course of T3 with your doctor. The object of T3 therapy is to normalise your oral body temperatures to an average of 37.5 deg C during treatment.

Correcting slow metabolism and getting your body temperature back to normal will help your body to get back to normal too.