Just diagnosed with hypothyroidism!

I've had Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism for about 5 years.  It's going to take some time for the medication dose to be correct because you don't want to ramp up too quickly.  I find that it takes me about 6 - 8 weeks before I feel better once my dose gets changed.

I definitely feel better - less tired and sluggish - but it can still be a challenge to lose weight.  

Hang in there! It will definitely get better.  Feel free to shoot me any questions and I'll do my best to answer.  

I was diagnosed with Grave's disease (overactive) about 4yrs ago and have since had radioactive iodine treatment. Since then my thyroid has been underactive and I am taking meds to maintain stability in its function.

When starting with any medication - it can take between 6-18months for you body to find it's balance using the medication so unfortunately you may find your still the same for a month or two and you will slowly notice an improvement.

It is def one way to realise your bodies function the hard way

Isn't it comforting when you know exactly what's going on with you after such a duration?!

Keep in touch with your doctor and don't stop training!

I guess I also have a severe case of hypothyroidism - since I don't have a thyroid...  Taken out in December due to thyroid cancer.

It took me about 2 visits to get the synthroid dose right.  They can get pretty close the first go around based on your weight.  They said I needed 180mmg so they just rounded it up to 200mmg and then it takes about 6 weeks for your body to show the results of the medication.  It was a little TOO much.  And the side effects are not that much better.  It's not opposite of what you would think (lots of energy and quick weight loss).  It almost feels the same - sluggish.

The second time around they gave me 175mmg.  I would say that 2-3 week later, I was finally feeling "normal".  A couple weeks after that, it was confirmed by bloodwork that it was good.

Now I have to get bloodwork about 1-2 times a year to just make sure it's doing what it's supposed to do.

I doubt you will need as much if your thyroid is partially working.  The name brand stuff (synthroid) is about 30 bucks for 30 pills, but you can get 90pills for 10 bucks if you go generic (based on your insurance), so it's not going to break the bank to keep taking it - thank the stars.

That only works if you have no thyroid function.  For people with the autoimmune disease, it frequently takes longer because your body has some thyroid function left and there isn't a great way to estimate how much your body is still making.

I've been diagnosed as hypothyroid since ~2003 and here are my (random) thoughts:

1) be persistant with your doctor regarding dosage if you still don't feel quite right.  Most doctors go by the numbers, and most do not like keeping you at a low TSH.  I feel best with mine around 0.5.

2) if you don't feel your doctor is listening to you, change doctors.  I went through 4 doctors before I finally found one that would listen to me.  There are yahoo groups for thyroid support in each state, and are a really good resource for doctor recommendations.

3) be open to taking more than one kind of thyroid medication.  I take Synthroid but I also take Armour because I feel that having some supplemental T4 is good for me.

4) you will need to go in annually for bloodwork and evaluation.  More frequently if you lose/gain weight.

5) In my experience, it took a while (a few years?) to get my dosage good.  I'd be on one dosage and sort-of plateau, then need a higher dosage, so on and so forth. 

Sadly, I didn't lose any weight since being diagnosed.  My endo actually told me I was overweight and asked what I did for exercise.  At the time I was on a Masters Swim team, swimming 1.5 hrs 4x a week.  She looked at me and said I needed to exercise a minimum of 30 minutes PER day (averaging your minutesa over the week  doesn't count).  A year later, I started training for triathlons, no weight gain and she grumbled at me but let me alone.  Another year later, I was training for two HIMs with no weight loss, and she raised her eyebrows and was honestly astonished I was not losing weight.