When I was first diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, I thought that was the end of the story.
I was prescribed Levothyroxine, told my thyroid wasn’t working properly and sent on my way. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered my underactive thyroid was actually a symptom of something else entirely: an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s disease.
Learning that changed the way I thought about my health and wellbeing. It helped me understand why I still struggled at times, even when my thyroid blood tests appeared normal, and why looking after my health involved much more than simply taking a tablet each morning.
What Is Hashimoto’s Disease?
Hashimoto’s disease, sometimes called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, is an autoimmune condition.
Normally, our immune system protects us from viruses, bacteria and other threats. In people with autoimmune conditions, the immune system becomes confused and starts attacking healthy parts of the body instead.
With Hashimoto’s disease, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland.
Over time, this can damage the thyroid and affect its ability to produce the hormones the body needs to function properly. As a result, many people with Hashimoto’s develop an underactive thyroid.
This is why I think it’s important to understand that an underactive thyroid is often not the condition itself. It is a symptom of the underlying autoimmune disease.
What Symptoms Can Hashimoto’s Cause?
Everyone’s experience is different, but for me the symptoms included:
- Exhaustion
- Thinning hair
- Feeling cold all the time
- Long menstrual cycles
- Dry skin
- Difficulty concentrating
- Brittle nails
- Low mood
- Anxiety
At the time, I thought many of these things were simply part of being a busy new mum. Looking back, they were all clues that something wasn’t quite right.
The difficulty with Hashimoto’s is that many of its symptoms can develop gradually and overlap with other things such as stress, parenting, perimenopause or simply the demands of everyday life.
Why Doesn’t Levothyroxine Solve Everything?
Levothyroxine replaces the thyroid hormone that your body is struggling to produce. For many people it is an essential and highly effective treatment.
I take mine every morning and always have.
However, for me, taking Levothyroxine wasn’t the whole answer.
While it helped replace the missing hormone, it didn’t change the fact that I still had an autoimmune condition. I often found myself returning to the doctor because I was exhausted or struggling with symptoms, only to be told that my thyroid levels were within the normal range.
It took me a long time to realise that looking after my thyroid and looking after my overall health were not necessarily the same thing.
Why Can Symptoms Fluctuate?
One of the things I wish I’d understood sooner is that autoimmune conditions don’t exist in isolation.
In my experience, anything that places extra pressure on my body can affect how I feel.
Stress is a big one.
So are viral infections and bugs.
Hormonal changes can also have an impact, which is one reason many women notice changes during pregnancy, after childbirth or during perimenopause.
That doesn’t mean these things cause Hashimoto’s disease, but they can influence how well we feel and how effectively our bodies cope with the condition.
Looking Beyond the Thyroid
Over the years, I’ve learned that managing Hashimoto’s isn’t just about a blood test result.
It’s also about:
- Sleep
- Stress management
- Nutrition
- Movement
- Rest
- Boundaries
- Learning when to slow down
I’ve learned that my health is affected by how I live as a whole, not just by the tablet I take each morning.
That doesn’t mean I’ve got everything figured out. Far from it.
But it does mean I now approach my health very differently from when I was first diagnosed.
An Important Piece of the Puzzle for Me
One of the biggest turning points in my own health journey came when I learned that people with Hashimoto’s disease can be more likely to experience nutrient deficiencies, including low ferritin.
Ferritin is a protein that stores iron in the body, and having low ferritin can cause symptoms that feel remarkably similar to those often associated with an underactive thyroid.
For me, low ferritin turned out to be a very important piece of the puzzle.
Despite taking Levothyroxine and being told that my thyroid levels were within the normal range, I was still exhausted. My hair remained thin, I constantly felt cold and I struggled with the sort of fatigue that seemed out of proportion to what was going on in my life.
When I eventually discovered that my ferritin levels were low and took steps to address them, I noticed a significant improvement in how I felt.
That experience taught me something important: sometimes there can be more than one thing contributing to the symptoms we’re experiencing. While thyroid medication was an essential part of my treatment, it wasn’t the whole story.
I’ll be writing more about ferritin, iron stores and the role they can play in Hashimoto’s disease in a future article, as it’s a topic I wish I’d known much more about when I was first diagnosed.
What I’ve Learned
If there’s one thing I wish someone had told me when I was diagnosed, it’s this:
An underactive thyroid may be the symptom that gets your attention, but understanding the bigger picture can make all the difference.
Hashimoto’s disease has taught me a great deal about listening to my body, managing my energy and being kinder to myself.
It’s taught me that health is rarely about one thing in isolation. It’s often a combination of factors, and understanding your own body takes time, patience and curiosity.
It’s still a work in progress.
And that’s exactly why I started The Well Lived Day: to share what I’ve learned along the way in the hope that it might help someone else too.
