Hi,

I wasn't even a registered user of this site, until I saw your post. I would ditch that doctor of yours ASAP. Find someone who will listen to you and who knows what they're doing.

High cortisol WILL cause weight gain... as well as muscle wasting, high blood sugar, mood disturbances, osteoporosis, and many other awful things.

I have high, high cortisol (blood and urine). It has interfered with my thyroid function. I have put on 15 lbs in the last 10 months. I was quite slim to begin with and this is very disturbing to me. I am now beginning to suspect that all my repeated low carb dieting is at least partially to blame for this.

If you're going to test thyroid. These are the tests you need (in order of importance): Free T3, Reverse T3, Free T4, TSH.

If your cortisol is high, then your RT3 (Reverse T3) will be high and your FT3 (Free T3) will be low. You TSH may be normal or a little high.