Is it your Thyroid or Hormones that are out of balance?

Conventional medicine and social media have moved us away from seeing the body as a whole with all systems integrating at any one time. We tend to now look at each organ or system in isolation and forget to think of the impact that malfunction in one area can have on another.

Did you know that problems with your thyroid could be the underlying cause of your heavy periods, fatigue, brain fog, dry skin, hair thinning, changes to your weight, palpitations …. And much more?

Thyroid, adrenal, and sex hormones are all carefully coordinated by the same ‘’pilot’’ part of our brain, the hypothalamus. This sends signals to a very delicate part of our brain called the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland secretes hormones that tell the thyroid, ovaries, or testicles and adrenals to produce a certain hormone. It is not a separately wired system that has a switch on and off, but a very delicate, fine-tuned system that could be likened to the conduction of an orchestra. If your thyroid is not functioning well, or even optimally it doesn’t take much to realise that the whole song, or process is out of whack.

What and Where is Our Thyroid?

Our Thyroid is a gland found at the base of our throat, just above our collarbones. Upon receiving signals it produces and releases Thyroxine (T4). To do this the thyroid needs to be able to receive and understand the signal and have the right building blocks to create Thyroxine (T4).

Once T4 is released it is broken down by enzymes to create T3 - the biologically active Thyroid hormone that acts on every cell in our body. The system works a little bit like a thermostat in so much that if the overall levels of thyroid hormones that the pilot gland senses are low, it turns up the heat and signals the thyroid to produce more. The opposite happens when the pilot gland thinks there is too much thyroid hormone present.

Types of Thyroid Dysfunction

Thyroid dysfunction is broadly divided into categories:

• Hyper or OVER active

• Hypo or UNDER active

The symptoms of each are quite distinct from the other.

Hypothyroidism :

• Low energy

• Weight gain

• Hair thinning

• Dry skin

• Brain fog or feeling slow mentally or even depressed

• Feeling cold

• Constipation

• Heavy periods

• Irregular periods

• Fertility and pregnancy problems

Hyperthyroidism

• Tremors

• Palpitations

• Anxiety

• Weight loss

• Irregular or absent periods

• Heavy or light periods

• Insomnia

• Eye changes, protrusion of the eyeball.

Both can occur because of an issue in the thyroid gland itself, or because of an underlying Autoimmune condition. That then causes an attack on the thyroid either causing it to release lots of Thyroxine, or slowly destroy its ability to make it.

Most commonly these are known as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis or Graves disease. Other causes of thyroid problems are quite wide but most commonly include:

• Insufficient nutrients or building blocks

• Stress/sickness

• Gut dysbiosis

What impact can a dysfunctional thyroid have on menstrual health?

For women, the most typically associated issues are changes to your period in terms of its regularity and heaviness.

For many periods may stop. This may have further knock-on effects in terms of fertility and may also complicate perimenopause and menopause.

How do I get my thyroid checked?

Getting your thyroid checked is easy. Your GP may be able to assess your TSH but unfortunately, they do not always receive the result of how much Thyroxine is in your blood. From a functional medicine perspective, we want to help your thyroid work optimally. So at BiOrigin, we like to look at TSH, Free T4, Free T3, ferritin, Vitamin D, B12, and folate levels - all of which are important factors in providing the building blocks. We can help to arrange a blood test for you but there are also lots of companies out there that now offer home testing. The only downfall to this is the interpretation of the results and making sure it really is all working optimally.

Without a functioning thyroid we can become very ill and the knock on effects are wide. We strongly advocate the importance of checking your thyroid as part of your overall and menstrual wellbeing.

If your thyroid is within normal limits, but not ‘’optimal’’, there are lots of lifestyle factors that one can do to bolster the Thyroid action. If we find that your thyroid is not working well at all then we can help to either support Thyroxine production or replace the missing hormone. Beyond this, however, as holistic doctors we are keen to always find the root cause, therefore we may then suggest further investigation to find out what sent your thyroid out of whack to make sure that those foundations are in place for your overall long term health and wellbeing.

This is just a very brief discussion around Thyroid. We strongly encourage all women to take a proactive approach to their health and wellbeing. Let’s not make assumptions, let's work with the facts and use all factors within our control to feel well and live the life we want and deserve.