[mamabear]

#1069779

April, Your TSH is still out of range but it might take longer for that to catch up to everything else. If you are feeling better CONGRATS!!!!
Like you said everyone is different, if you have light periods they might go back to "normal" for you eventually but everyones body adjusts differently so eventually could mean next month or 6months. Personally mine changed for good after I went back to what I thought would be normal. I wont complain at all but I will say that it’s not the same. Also note to yourself that after having children your period will change as well depending on how many kids you have…ummm like me ROFL!!!!

You are on the road, now is the time to look forward only. See how you feel and eventually you’ll know in your head as well in your heart what to do about surgery vs. staying on the meds.

[vintagegreen]

#1019168

ok, i’m back and ready to post another few questions.

Here’s a few details about my situation first.
I have been taking PTU (400 mg for two weeks) and my dosage has been reduced to 200mg/day now. This started last week. From my blood work last week, my levels are

Free T4 1.06 (0.58-1.64)
Free T3 3.07 (2.50-3.90)
TSH 0.01(0.20-6.00)

This week, I’m sitting about a month on the ATDs and 3 weeks on the betas.

I’m not sure if I can expect to continually get better on the ATDs, although honestly I am feeling better and sleeping regularly now. Muscular fatigue is still there and I just chopped off my once-beautiful nails today because they kept chipping and peeling away. I never had the skin or eye problems. My heart rate seems to be more normal, as the beta blockers helped out with that. Periods are still very light. How long before they’re normal again?

I know GD is never identical from one person to the next, but I wondered about the likelihood that I would develop some of the other symptoms I never had during my ATD treatment. I suppose anything can happen, so I want to at least brace myself in advance. Does anyone who underwent ATD initially understand what I’m asking? Did anyone develop the above-mentioned symptoms while on the ATD treatment? It is my understanding that things should improve during treatment, but I am not a gambling person, so I feel like I have to read the same thing multiple times in different sources to know for sure.

I realize I’m still on the road and not even yet back to my former self, I just wondered what to expect and whether I should seriously consider the surgery at this point. My endo says I’m a candidate now that I’m more stable, but she is ok with me staying on the ATDs. I’m just wondering if it is worth it to stick it out or whether I should take the other path.

Still deciding~
April

Thanks for reading this and offering your insight.

[Ski]

#1069780

You are extremely early in the process of ATD treatment, and your levels seem to be responding (the TSH reading typically lags by a few weeks ~ at this point your best indicator is your T4 level), so you have time to decide whether you feel that ATD treatment is working out for you.

This is the time when you need to be dialing in the right ATD dose to maintain normal levels, so you might find that you "bounce around" a little as you and your doctor figure that out, but you are so early in the process that you don’t have enough information to make a decision about abandoning ATDs yet. You haven’t been on ATDs long enough to see how you really feel while maintaining levels on them, but you do know your body is responding, so you are at least moving in the right direction.

Deviation in periods should be consistent with your levels, meaning that if your body is hyper, they’ll be lighter and further apart, and if your body is hypo, they’ll be heavier and closer together. Since the process of perfecting a dose on ATDs can result in levels that jump slightly from one direction to the other, you may find that the pattern varies every couple of months, but for the most part you should be getting ever nearer to the normal you knew before.

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