February 6, 2003
Question: My body is always in pain, every day. If it isn't my knees, it’s my neck or shoulder, low back or mid-back. I go to my chiropractic doctor every week and have for many years. I sleep on a thermo-foam type mattress. But I don’t sleep thru the night. My GP prescribes Bextra for my pain from a left knee surgery in 2001. I feel worse when I don't take it, but even with it I feel like an old lady. I'm 47-years-old, and it feels like I'm getting older every day.

I went to an endocrinologist early in 2001 because I wasn't feeling right. My muscles are always tight, memory is poor, my weight is always an issue, and I have extreme fatigue, especially during my menstrual cycle. During my period, I have very heavy blood loss for two days. My first gynecologist did nothing for the heavy bleeding. The endocrinologist did blood work and said I was anemic. He also said that my thyroid was in the low range of normal. This is the same as it has been since my early twenties. He said there was no need for thyroid medication.

I went to another gynecologist in 2002. She told me my anemia is caused by large uterine fibroids. I was on Lupron for six months to shrink the fibroids and to prepare for a hysterectomy. Well, the fibroids barely shrunk and I barely lost weight. So she said I was too high a risk for surgery. In two weeks, I’ll undergo fibroid embolization. I hope this stops the bleeding.

Could my problems be related to hypothyroidism? Should I see a rheumatologist, which has been recommended? What do you think?

Dr. Lowe: I'm afraid you've taken a seat on the medical merry-go-round that millions of hapless patients find themselves riding. If you're to get well, you must promptly give up your seat and hop off. That means, of course, giving up conventional medicine.

You wrote that you have chronic pain; tight muscles; poor memory; extreme fatigue, especially during your menstrual cycle; heavy menstrual flow; and anemia. These are classic symptoms and signs of hypothyroidism. They shout out hypothyroidism, and your low-normal thyroid test results amplify the shout.

I’ve had many hypothyroid women patients over the years who had hysterectomies because of profuse menstrual bleeding. Their medical histories indicated that hypothyroidism was caused. Like you, they had low-normal thyroid function test results and classic symptoms and signs of hypothyroidism, including the profuse bleeding. After the women had undergone hysterectomies, their other hypothyroid symptoms and signs continued to bother or torment them. After spending small fortunes on medical care to control their continuing symptoms, they eventually ended up in my clinic. Then they got the final confirmation that hypothyroidism had caused their heavy bleeding—rapid and full recovery from all their symptoms and signs with proper metabolic therapy.

For a surgeon to stop heavy menstrual bleeding by removing a hypothyroid woman’s uterus is like putting tape over the flashing oil light on the dash board of a car. Doing so stops an annoyance. But, as for the car, it’s a harmful and costly expedient for the woman.

Embolization, of course, isn’t as horrific as a surgeon unnecessarily removing a woman's uterus. During embolization, a doctor introduces a substance into the patient’s circulation to occlude blood vessels. This can arrest hemorrhaging when it comes from the area of a fibroid. But if the cause of the heavy bleeding is hypothyroidism, the embolization won’t stop the bleeding. To stop it, the doctor would have to embolize the woman’s enter uterine lining, That, of course, shouldn’t be done because it would then necessitate hysterectomy.

Before undergoing any invasive procedure to stop the heavy bleeding during your period, I suggest you try another option: Find an alternative doctor who’ll give you a trial of thyroid hormone therapy with a high-enough dose of a T4/T3 thyroid hormone preparation. Based on my clinical experiences with women with your history, it’s highly probable that the therapy will relieve your symptoms and signs. And there’s a good chance the therapy will eliminate the need for you to undergo any invasive gynecologic procedure, including embolization.