I am seeing a great doctor. For a long time I had the feeling that my thyroid was outta whack. I am cold when others are not, my BB temps are really low, I am stuck at a weight which will not budge despite lots of exercise and a low carb diet and I have severe PMS. He tested me for lots of things. Really comprehensive tests. They revealed that I have low cortisol levels and normal TSH, lowish but in range T4 and low free T3. So for the moment he is treating my adrenals but says he wants to review in two months and see where I am. Then he wants us to discuss thyroid meds if there has not been a significant improvement.

I am wondering do I really have a thyroid problem or is it just because my adrenals are so whacked? Is this euthyroid stress syndrome?

Here are my list of symptoms:
High cholesterol
Inability to lose weight even on low carb
Burning feet
Brain fog,
Cold ALL the time
Very low body temperature
Sudden bouts of severe fatigue
Breathlessness before periods
Severe PMS
Acne
Itchy ears.

Scarlet
It sounds like your doc has a very good idea of how to treat hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue: treat the adrenals first. If the adrenals aren't functioning up to normal then your body won't be able to utilize thyroid hormones adequately.

With the itchy ears---is that on the external skin or is that an itching sensation inside the ear? If it is inside, you might have a fungus/yeast infection! My ex had a fungus infection inside his ear and his doc had to clean it out.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Scarlet
Hi again. Next time you talk to your Doc have him get you tested for thyroid antibodies: TPOAb (Thyroid peroxidase antibodies) and TgAb (thyroglobulin Antibodies). The results of these tests will reveal whether or not you have a relatively common form or Hypothyroidism: Hashimoto's. It is possible to have Hashimoto's and adrenal fatigue at the same time.

Yeah I'll keep that in mind. The ears ae itchy inside but he tested me for yeast and parasites and I have none of that. Do you think I am hypo?

Get the actual test results and post the TSH, T4 and T3 numbers, or whatever you have. The "normal" range is too large and you can be in that range yet have hypoT symptoms.

Have you tried coconut oil or MCT oil? if not that is something you can try.
Again no experience it is also on my list of things to try.

One more thing, if you arent doing already monitor your blood glucose yourself for some days. See if it is in the normal range with Glucose tolerance test.

the main function of adrenals is to stabilise blood sugar between meals. but if you blood glucose is high normal, the adrenals are fatigues trying to keep the Blood sugar constant. the other main function is to reduce inflammation. Reducing any of those will help the adrenals.

Thyroid is directly dependent on adrenal function, you can have low thyroid because the adrenals are not controlling inflammation.

Maintining the blood glucose should be first and foremost thing.

Scarlet
Can you post your actual test result numbers and the lab ranges that go with them? Such as, my FT3 was 3.20 within a range of 2.30--4.20. In my case, my FT3 SHOULD have been 4.20 or a little higher.
Your symptoms sound like hypothyroidism.

Ferretin and B12 are both fine.

Free T4 is 12 (range is 9.0 -19.0)
Free T3: 4.3 (range 4.0 -6.8)

My adrenal fatigue is pretty bad:
Morning cortisol result: 13.1 (range 12-22)
Noon result: 2.4 (range 5.0-9.0)
Early evening result: 3.4 (range is 3.0-7.0)
Night time cortisol: 1.1 (range 1.0-3.0)

I am in Ireland though so our lab values are pretty much always different to yours. Apparently we measure in mml and you in mg or some other such nonsense . It's the same with cholesterol i.e U.S. cholesterol number of 200 = 5.1 here as we are using different measuring symptoms. My doc was concerned that my levels were both in the lower third of the range however.

What was your TSH?

You'd probably feel better if your T4 was in the higher part of the range. Like upper 1/3rd. It'd probably be hard to get a doctor to treat you though but you might try progesterone cream (we can get this in the states). It does seem to kick the thyroid up a notch. Or one of those thyroid supplements, I don't know much about them. Taking iodine is tricky since it might actually lower your thyroid hormone levels.

Lowish Free T3 is normal if you're dieting.

Oh... B12 the range is huge but don't ever allow yourself to be at the bottom of the range, head for the top of the range. You can feel pretty nasty at the bottom from what I've had other people tell me.

Getting a copy of TSH from doctor but think it was well within range, about 1.4 or something. My progesterone levels have been tested and they are abnormally high.

Is low free T3 not just when you cut calories a lot which I am not doing? I cut my carbs but not my calories.

Do you always feel cold ?

Take your basal temperature and see for yourself. Also coconut oil seems to help a lot of people with low T3. As does Zinc selenium and magnesium if they are low.

I'm not 100% certain because for me, cutting my carbs always means cutting my calories, I have a much smaller appetite the fewer carbs I eat. Some people on here have though lowering their carbs also lowered their T3.

Yep, always cold. MY BBT is 96.4-96.6 pre ovulation and up to 96.8 afterwards.

Tried coconut oil but it made no difference to me.

Apart from the first few days of ketosis low carb does not take away my appetite. So my cals are always up there at a decent level. And cutting them made no difference to my weight loss. I have upped fat, I have lowered fat, I have lowered protein, I have upped protein, I have lowered carbs, I have upped carbs but nothing has changed.

So thats why in desperation I went to this doctor.

Well, from the numbers it doesn't look like hypothyroid and you'll have a hard time getting any doctor to treat you for it with those numbers, unless you have a naturopath or something.

I guess just hang tight with the adrenal treatment and see if that helps at all.

Some of your symptoms could be food intolerance related too. I know a lot of people complain of brain fog/acne with grain/dairy intolerances. Have you considered going GF/DF for awhile?