[fj122876]

#1018321

First, sorry that I have not responded to my last post, I’ve been having a rough few weeks. I have a question about joint pain. I have had terrible pain in my hips and my knees, the kind of pain that makes it hard to walk. I will admit I am not one to stop despite the joint pain, because I worry if I do stop, I won’t start again. I went to the endo and my levels have not changed despite 2 or so months on methimazole. He did increase the dose from 20mg to 40mg per day. Could that be causing the joint pain. Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[huntwork]

#1064002

From what I have learned from my Endo/PCP and various medical texts: It could still be related to being Hyper. If your thyroid isn’t controlled yet. I would ask your doctor and give the med a chance to work (it takes like a month or more for some med changes to actually work!!) Definitely talk with your doctor. I’m just speaking from experience, not giving medical advice!! ” title=”Smile” />

[Kimberly]

#1064003

Hello – Joint pain can be a potential side effect of Anti-Thyroid Drugs (ATDs), so I would definitely mention this symptom to your doctor or pharmacist.

Also, when you mention that your levels haven’t changed in 2 months, is your doctor only looking at TSH…or also at Free T3 and Free T4? At this point in your treatment, the “Frees” are much more useful benchmarks to determine dosing levels, as TSH can remain suppressed for months – or even years – in patients who are on ATDs.

Best of luck…hope you can get some relief from this!

[arkie]

#1064004

Curious if you had joint pain before any treatment . I have been told by my Doctor that i have hyperthyroidism . I have’nt seen a specialist yet . I also have a lot of joint pain and hip pain .

[fj122876]

#1064005

I’ve never had joint pain to this extent before. If I had joint pain before, it was usually something like sleeping the wrong way or something that would go away after I stretched or walked around. The pain I’m having now won’t go away its become very uncomfortable.

[Momssick]

#1064006

I have had this joint pain. Mine moved from joint to joint day by day. One day it would be my right wrist and left knee. The next day the pain would be gone from those joints but in my right hip and left ankle (Just examples). Day by day it changed making it hard to walk, drive and even care for my kids. I had been on my meds for 4 plus months. My Endo thought I was allergic to my Hypo med. So they changed it to the other and I still had the pain. To be honest I eventually quit taking all my meds to stop the intense pain. Thus I have to go to my Endo on Thursday because the swelling in my eyes is back and I am having chest pains. I do not know what I am goin g to do. But I do sympathize with you. The pain is awful at least mine was. I slept in my daughters bed alone so no one would move around me or touch me that’s how bad the pain was. I laid still all night long. It is crazy.

[Kimberly]

#1064007

Sorry to hear that you are struggling with this. ” title=”Sad” /> Hopefully, you have a doctor who will work with you to get to the bottom of your symptoms…and get you some RELIEF. We are not docs on this site, just fellow patients, but a few things that you might want to mention at you appointment…

Joint pain can be a sign of hypO…so hopefully, your doctor will be checking your thyroid hormone levels to make sure your levels are in the optimal range. For patients who are stable, TSH is usually the preferred test…but this early in your treatment, it would probably be helpful to run Free T3 and Free T4 as well.

Some patients react to the fillers in the meds. You might ask you doc about brands/doseages with NO fillers to see if that helps.

Once we have one autoimmune condition (Graves’), we are statistically slightly more likely than the rest of the population to end up with a second autoimmune condition. So it might be worth checking out whether there is something else that is causing your joint pain.

If your eyes are acting up, you might ask your doc for a referral to an opthalmologist, in case you are dealing with Thyroid Eye Disease. (Of course, swelling could be due to allergies or some other cause…but it’s worth getting a professional opinion.)

Best of luck…hope that you get some relief soon!

[Bobbi]

#1064008

To momssick:

The human body is incredibly complicated, and what is diagnosed as a symptom in one disease, may not indicate that disease in another person. It is TOTALLY frustrating to those of us who are ill, or suffering from something that the doctors cannot figure out.

So, it is known that the antithyroid meds can cause arthritis-like joint pain. But there are other things that can cause joint pain as well, including another autoimmune disease called rheumatoid arthritis. And, perhaps other disease conditions as well — we are not simple creatures. If, however, when you were on your meds, you were having ‘normal’ (not hypo) blood test results, and if, when you stopped the meds the pain went away, point that out to your endocrinologist. It will help the doctor to figure out what was going on. There are two antithyroid drugs, although our doctors are leaning more towards the one for safety reasons, nevertheless, there are two. There is also the removal of your thyroid as a possible treatment option. But whatever you do, you absolutely must make your priority getting your thyroid hormone levels under control. You may not be able to solve all the problems at once — although that would be a real blessing if it happened. But at least if you focus on the thyroid issues, while trying to figure out the joint pain, you will know that you are still helping yourself back to health.

I hope you and your doctor can figure out what is causing the pains soon.

[Ski]

#1064009

One other possibility for the root cause of joint pain can be the muscle wasting from hyperthyroidism ~ weakened muscles can weaken the support for the joints, and that causes pain because of things being misaligned. Best to talk with a myriad of professionals until someone is able to define your issues and help you resolve them, don’t give up!

[Author]

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