Ive wondered if I have thyroid problems for a while but since many of the symptoms overlap with my PCOS symptoms I just attributed it all to PCOS. I read an article last week that talked about ones basal metabolic rate and body temperature. I have been taking my body temperature daily and I am 96.9 on average. It will fluctuate from 96.7 to 97.1 but usually its 96.9 Ive tried this with 2 thermometers and even had my boyfriend take his temp which was 98.6. I am never cold though. Even when its freezing in the winter time my BF always wears a jacket and I am warm in a t-shirt. In fact I am almost always rather hot. I need the AC blasting all the time and wont go walking during the day because its too warm for me.

This doesnt sound normal. Should I be concerned, could this be a thyroid problem or one of the reasons that my weight loss is so slow when I suspect it should be faster? Could it just be that I have a naturally low body temperature and shouldnt think anything of it?

Was this axillary (under arm) oral, rectal or ear temperature?

See this http://www.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/hw198785.asp

My temp is 95.5 Axillary, it gets cold

I checked both under arm and oral and it was around the same for both (slighly lower under my arm). Usually I prefer to test orally.

I'd be suspicious of those temperatures if they're the same. Under arm should be 1 degree less than oral.

Lots of things can make your body temperature low. Dieting is one. In fact, low body temperature is a positive marker for life expectency amongst people following calorie restricted diets.

I know a lot of my symptoms went away once I got off the things I was eating that were food intolerances.

It wouldn't hurt to get your thyroid checked though, next time you get a blood test done.

I just tested in both areas again after drinking 14 oz of hot broth. Orally I was 97.9 and under arm I was 97.1.

Normally orally I am 96.9 and under arm I am around 96.5 or so.

Could this be because my calories are too low? Ive cut back on carbs and so my calories have been ranging from 500-1300 a day. I know thats a pretty big range. I suppose its totally possible that I am slowing down my own metabolism. But why am I never ever cold?

Oh, I should also add that I was on prednisone and gained weight at a rate of 20 pounds a month while on it. That was over a year ago. I dont know if that has any impact or not.

Yeah, cutting back on calories would drop your temperature.

I don't know why you're not cold. I was always freezing, when dieting low-cal or when I had hypothyroid. My sister is always warm too, but she carries a lot of weight around too.

To clear things up
Go to www.about.thyroid.com see the top dr list, go to a dr that will test free T3, free T4 and TSH. You might have to pay for all of it yourself to get a good dr. NancyLC knows of a place you can tested without a drs involvement for about $75.

When your on the thyroid website look at the symptoms for hypothyroid. The symptoms I noticed was the tired feeling, my nails were weak and my skin became dry, bad pms, tangly hair, no outer eyebrows, no wt loss on atkins.

The early stages of hypo the symptoms can be subtle and they come on slowly. Consider your family history, some thyroid problems run in families.

I think your supposed to wait 30 min after eating/drinking to take your temp orally.

It is confusing to know what the 'normal' temperature should be. Different people have come up to varying numbers. http://hypertextbook.com/facts/LenaWong.shtml

You're not cold because your low body temp makes you more susceptible to heat. It's the same as when you come inside in the winter from the cold, the house feels very warm for a while until your body warms up closer to the room temp. Same as if you're in air conditioning for a long time and then go out into the heat--it feels warmer to you than if you had been in the heat for a while.

My normal temp is from 96.4 to 97.1 orally. I never get cold. I have no heat at all in my bedroom in the winter and still usually throw off the covers. I keep the thermostat on 65 degrees and usually wear short sleeves and shorts all winter. I don't own a coat. It gets very cold where I live.

I have had my thyroid checked, but it comes back normal. I also have very low blood pressure and slow heart beat. Instead of going up when I am sick, mine usually goes down. Our bodies are strange.

Sunny!

LC fixed my thyroid problem. I had tested borderline low to just below the borderline for about 20 years (I was a vegetarian and eating 10-15% fat most of that time) & even tried a low dose of thyroid hormones ~6 yrs ago, but stopped because they seemed to interfere with my other hormones (I felt worse, not better & started spotting). After starting PP in 2000, my thyroid levels went into and have stayed in the normal range and I am no longer freezing all the time.

I kept thinking about you and felt you got a little short changed in advice.

There is a famous thyroid dr Broda Barnes that spent his lifetime investigating temperature and thyroid, he set the standard for diagnosis. You can find his book at the library and there is a website and Broda Barnes Foundation. Until Abbott Laboratories made synthetic thyroid and developed the TSH test, Dr. Barnes methods were used for nearly 100 years. Holistic doctors insist that many people never feel a difference on synthetic thyroid and tsh test doesn't catch all thyroid disorders. Like Dr. Atkins they go back to the old Dr. Barnes methodology. On the thyroid.about.com list you will see people say "this dr prescribes natural thyroid."

By his method:
You use a mercury or BBT thermometer under the arm for 10 minutes, start the first moment you awaken and you don't get out of bed or move to do it. Dr. Atkins uses a digital temp and outlines in his book how to do it.

The temperature for menstruating women is taken the first 4 days of the cycle.

Dr. Atkins says dieting is one of the ways that your thyroid is depressed, but some estimates are that 10-25% of the population has a thyroid disorder, not just depressed metabolism. Like the others yours maybe diet related. My thyroid was slightly low all winter, I never turned on the heater and wore shorts most of the time. Being cold is not the only symptoms of a thyroid disorder.

You live in Cali and have the best chance of getting good thyroid testing and treatment. I moved to colorado and testing they use is called outdated and no longer used. LOL! After 9 drs, I gave up and went back to Cali to get decent treatment.

Thanks! I will check out the book and take my temp that way.

So natural thyroid hormone would be better than the synthetic? Or could dieting alone reverse it?

Thyroid is a very personal thing. People react differently to the medications, the numbers where one person feels great another will feel bad. With drs it kind of the same thing as lowcarb. The modern drs went for lowfat and now people are coming back and realizing fat isn't bad- kind of the same thing with thyroid, some believe science didn't lead to the right outcome. You choose your medication based on the free T3 and Free T4 levels. Getting those 2 things and your TSH would tell you where your thryoid is.

Natural thyroid contains 7 thyroid molecules T1-T7, synthetic thyroid is only T4.

I think you already know your temp is low. I would look to see if I had other hypo symptoms, they come on slowly but think back over 5 years and see if your body has changed.

My body reacts very fast and my temp goes down with dieting, I have been following Lyle Mac Donalds philoshopy that 100 carbs now and then (every 10-14 days) will reset thyroid. My temp was 96.3, 5 days of eating 100 carbs and its up to 98.1- and I lost 3lbs. You could see if even 1 or 2 days of higher carbs makes a difference in your temp.