“My dose is correct, I have the doctor re-determine it every year.”
Again and again I hear statements like this from patients with Hashimoto’s, but unfortunately I often find that they have never been properly informed about their disease. Because how much thyroid hormone a person ultimately needs or consumes depends, among other things, on how stressful their current life situation is.
You can think of it like the gasoline consumption of a car. If you drive 100 miles at 55 mph, your car might only use 3 gallons of gasoline. But if you were to travel the same distance at 120 mph, your consumption would quickly increase to 5 or 6 gallons. It is the same with thyroid hormones. If you were under a lot of stress in the days before your visit to the doctor, during which your medication dose was checked and redefined, then you consumed more thyroxine during this time than you took in via the medication.
If your doctor does not explicitly ask if you have had a lot of stress recently, he or she will note an apparent shortage of thyroxine and increase your dose. However, if the stress was short term, you will be taking much more hormone than you actually need until the next checkup. Over time, this leads to symptoms that are also known from hyperthyroidism: restlessness, sudden heart palpitations, hand tremors, sweating, diarrhea and nervousness.
Since all these symptoms are also typical of an anxiety disorder, it is not uncommon for a misdiagnosis to occur, since the thyroid hormones are supposedly optimally adjusted. If antidepressants or tranquilizers are now prescribed because of a supposed anxiety disorder, those affected get caught in a dangerous vicious circle that can have serious physical and psychological consequences. Because now on the one hand medicines are taken, which are completely unnecessary (antidepressants and tranquilizer), while on the other hand thyroid medicines are taken completely overdosed. But the other extreme is also frequently observed.