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As many people do, and me too, I would suggest to talk with your healthcare provider about any decision, diagnosis and treatment you want to undertake, this article is a merely personal experience that I hope it can help someone who is recently labeled with Hashimoto and is seeking out for answers to heal.
Hashimoto thyroiditis can be a silent disease that a person is going through.
And I say silent, because rarely some doctors don’t ask their patients to analyze first their thyroid panel, which includes the TSH, T4 and T3 levels, but also it is less likely that they ask for the blood tests for antithyroglobulin antibody TGAB and thyroid peroxidase antibodies TPO, which are the markers that will show out if there is an autoimmune response in the body.
The mistery symptoms that are created by Hashimoto are not in your head, and they are real and they can affect your life if you don’t do the neccessart lifestyle changes you have to do in order to heal.
So, which doctor is who can diagnose Hashimoto Thyroiditis, well it can be any doctor who ask for the previously mentioned lab tests, but mainly the one who treats it are the endocrinologists.
Endocrinology is the scientific medical area that is focused to study the endocrine glands and hormones of the body, not just the thyroid hormones.
But as for experience, even the endocrinologists can not really treat Hashimoto if they only rely their treatment on hormone replacement therapy.
As a I have mentioned in other articles talking about how to heal Hashimoto, there are more aspects to consider when treating and putting into remission Hashimoto.
Although it is more common to find out hypothyroidism and hashimoto in women, there is also the possibility to find out Hashimoto in men.
Following up I will take more about Hashimoto.
The endocrinologist is the doctor that specializes in conditions like diabetes, menopause and of course thyroid issues such hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, thyroid cancer, Graves and Hashimoto.
They are specialists on the endocrine systems, pituitary glan and the thyroid gland, which is a butterfly-shaped gland in the neck.
But as for experience, not all endocrinologists have received the proper training to really treat Hashimoto.
As for my background, some endocrinologists has pissed me off, because after going to one, two, three, four and not properly healing, it made me wonder if there was something wrong with me, or is there actually something wrong in the system.
Was it that doctors are bad people and just want to keep patients going back often, or is it really that they don’t know that going after the root causes of Hashimoto is actually the way to treat it?
The reality is that the treatment system that endocrinologists have created for hypothyroidism and Hashimoto is actually not the ideal and best one, and is not fully working on Hashimoto patients.
If you were lucky enought that your doctors asked you for the TGAB and TPO lab tests, then you quickly find out about Hashimoto.
The antithyroglobulin antibody TGAB and thyroid peroxidase antibodies TPO are the markers that can help to check out for Hashimoto.
If those markers are higher than what the lab gives, then the body is undergoing an autoimmune thyroiditis response.
The issue is that even if an endocrinologist or general doctor ask for the thyroid labs, the ones they ask for are TSH, T3 and T4 only.
But, almost 90% of hypothyroidism is also Hashimoto, and if TGAB and TPO markers are not tested, well, you won’t be labeled as Hashimoto and endocrinologist will only suggest to start the thyroid hormone replacement therapy.
Well, even if you are tested for TGAB and TPO, it is probable that the endocrinologist will just give levothyroxine.
So, if this is a constant issue among endocrinologist, are all the same?
No, you are not obligated to be tied to a doctor that is actually not helping you to find your own path towards healing.
Autoimmune disorders are complicated at the beginning, but as there are more and more awarenes and consciousness towards how to deal with it and find a personalized treatment plan, the path towards healing is faster.
When looking out for and endocrinologist doctor to manage your condition, take into consideration if they are also specialized in functional medicine, or lifestyle medicine.
Endocrinologists that are aware that food can have a huge impact on the gut lining, and in the autoimmune responses will be better doctors that those who don’t talk anything about nutrition, lifestyle, sleep and mental health.
Actually, any medical condition should seek out for what I consider the three levels of the mind, body and spirit, and if those are not taken with its importance, there will be some part of the puzzle missing.
It is not neccessary that one single person or doctor knows all aspects of the mind, body, spirit healing, but if they checked your levels of thyroid hormone, it would be also key if they talk with you about how some foods can also be altering your gut and thyroid like gluten, or if you need to start as well some meditation practice to bring down your levels of cortisol and stress levels and connect you with spirit.
Some doctors may diagnose any thyroid condition as a general check up, but it is common that they will refer you to an endocrinologist to seek out for a specific treatment to monitor your thyroid.
There are some cases that internists or general doctors are checking out your thyroid labs and managing Hashimoto’s disease, and honestly, if they do check out also for autoimmune responses due to food, and talk about some other aspects of the person’s lifestyle, I think that is a good way to treat Hashimoto’s.
At the end, what it matters is that the person finds his or her own personalized treatment, and feels healthier in the long run.
There are many hidden symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease and even endocrinologists can’t explain them, so if you find any other doctor who is actually helping and guiding you properly, then it would be ok to work with him or her.
My story with endocrinologists started as I was detected with a thyroid nodule by a general doctor who was internist, so it can be considered that my nodule was found out by accident, so the internist sent me to see an endocrinologist.
My first endocrinologist asked me to test my full thyroid labs, plus the TPO and TGAB, which for me was a good to know early about the autoimmune disorder.
Unfortunately, I was not told that I had to leave out gluten, and that there might be some foods generating some impact in my gut lining and in general creating inflamations in my body.
The focus was my thyroid nodule, do some radioactive iodine to check out if it was hot or cold, and neither it was hot nor cold, so the test was useless for me.
Then I was ordered to do a biopsy, which it was not well done, as the lab used a wrong needle, and not the fine needle.
So in general, a bad experience, that at the end the results was not really clear but pointing towards a non bad thyroid nodule.
The doctor gave me around 150mg of levothyroxine with the idea that it can reduce inflammation of the nodule, which it was a very bad idea.
Starting out with 150mg generated on me heart pressure and accelerated heart beats in the night.
It really felt awful, so when I called the doctor he told me to reduce to 100 mg, which slightly reduced the tachycardias.
The decision I took was to seek out for another doctor, where now I started what is usually called the doctor’s dance, since for autoimmune conditions, it takes more than one doctor to find out one that really helps out.
Therefore, the second doctor was the one who explain a little bit more about Hashimoto and the thyroid hormone levels, but again the only focus was on the levothyroxine dosage, so I lowered to 75mg but didn’t felt well.
So, I went back with the doctor quite soon, and it started to feel like ashamed of myself of not feeling well even if I was following the doctors instructions.
Neither 75mg nor 100mg were bringing me back to good health.
I was feeling anxious, not sleeping well, and sometimes feeling brain fog.
I went out to seek out for a third endocrinologist, who did back again the thyroid studies.
With him I took the decision to take 88mg which eventually felt the the right dose for me, and he also gave me Vitamin B since I told him that I as having some leg tiredness and pain.
This endocrinologist was the first one to at least mention any vitamin defficieny and how it can help for a given symptom.
But again, three endocrinologists so far, and no one ever discussed the impact of food and the gut, plus the importance of finding an adequate level of excercise that don’t bring up too much stress to the body, good sleep time of 7-9 hours, meditation and relaxing therapies.
So I went to Germany to do my master and eventually work.
In that time, since the german health system requires to have a main doctor, he was the one taking care of following up my case.
At the beginning he just asked me to do some regular check ups of the thyroid labs, in Germany I tested for some other brands, that didn’t work out well, so I kept taking Eutorix.
One time the doctor eventually recommended me to change to 100mg, which made me anxious due to the hard time I had finding out the 88mg dose.
For some time it was ok, but my sleep was of 4 hours then waking up and then trying to sleep again 4 hours.
I will tell to you, that is not normal, well unless a pit stop to the toilette.
2019 was a year for me with a lots of unbalances, and I can say it was a declining year, since I was again not starting to feel myself.
I started back again to go several times with the doctor because I was not feeling good.
Of couse, I was still partying, eating gluten and processed foods, drinking alcohol, but didn’t considered those things to much.
I did reduced my night life, but still the foods that I was eating were not ideal.
After several visits with the doctor and seeing that my thyroid labs were normal, then what was happening?
And this is what commonly happens to people with Hashimoto, even if you have your TSH normal, you will still have symptoms if your root causes are not adressed.
The doctor told me that it might be some stress and that I should relax, if I go with another doctor the answers would probably be the same.
After that appointment I felt being left alone, so I decided to wait to go to Mexico and seek again for another endocrinologist.
The fourth endocrinologist told me that my symptoms could be a reaction towards the formula of the levothyroxine, and that I should try another brand.
But trying for Synthyroid didn’t worked out for me, and even worse as I changed back to Eutirox, I had again chest pains and probably felt like heart attacks with 100mg, so I reduced back again to 88mg.
Back in Germany with my doctor, we changed to 75mg to a brand called Aristo.
I felt ok for a while, but I then seek out for another doctor specialist in chronic diseases and was an homeopath.
That doctor was the one who tested out in me which foods generated an autoimmune response on me.
That lab test helped to build up my Hashimoto Diet and what foods to avoid with Hashimoto.
She also checked besides the thyroid stimultating hormone, but also some vitamin deficiencies.
2020 happened, and I came back to Mexico.
At my home town an endocrinologist was visiting, and I decided to go, but if the doctor is listening to reggaeton music, barely putting attention and in 15 minutes making the session, than that was a red flag for me.
So I searched online for a functional medicine doctor in Mexico, and I found one luckly.
It was a half and hour session, the doctor listened to me, made plenty of questions, and it was more of establishing a healing partnership.
At the end, I am the only responsible of the success recovering my health.
The doctor asked me to test out again the thyroid labs, TPO, TGAB, and also T3 reverse, Vitamin D, Zinc and Selenium levels plus Pregnenolone, which is a precursor for hormones.
Levothyroxine made me feel awful, that is why I thought what will happen if I stop taking it.
At the time I decided to take no levothyroxine at all, but eventually as I presented some Raymund Disease and my fingers were getting purple in winter, then I was suggested to take back levothyroxine.
Eutirox, even with the low dose of 25mg generated in me chest pain, that I told my doctor I want to try another brand, so I changed to Karet.
I have been with a low dose of 37mg of that brand, and so far I have been good.
But what has actually helped me to heal, besides it has been my juicing therapy, my lifestyle changes, sleeping, meditating, nature work, and of course to leave out my foods to avoid for Hashimoto.
You can read more in my other articles to dig deeper into the topic of Hashimoto’s thyroidits.
In this article I wanted to focus more on who treats and diagnose Hashimoto, but as I can say by my own story, it doesn’t really matter, as long as the person supporting healthcare is conscious about root causes, what are the effects of synthethic thyroid hormones, the impact of gluten on the thyroid and the gut.
So if you are starting on this healing path, make sure that the specialist actually is willing to work together to manage and support your recovery.
