Hello back atcha W I'm confused about something -- Glucophage is a medication for diabetics which helps control blood sugar levels. What does that have to do with ovarian cysts?? I think that anything that affects your blood sugar level is going to affect your energy level. Wonder what's up with the Glucophage? If your labs were normal, what convinced her you were hypothyroid? ~Amy

I'm sorry you have PCOS. Do you actually have the insulin resistant condition so that you need to take the glucophage? I'm still curious how she has diagnosed hypothyroidism if the lab tests were normal? I definitely think a second opinion would be worthwhile. Good luck with that and with your running.

Hi CW - welcome! Sounds like you have a good doc. Normal values can be deceptive - if you are at the top of the normal range with your TSH and near the bottom of the normal range with your FT4, and having symptoms, you could very well be hypothyroid. Women tend to feel best when their TSH is around 1 - but everyone is different, and everyone has their own individual normal range - and that range is actually quite narrow. Sounds like your doc is looking at your whole picture and not just your lab values. The other thing you might want to ask her about is your iron levels, particularly your ferritin levels. Ferritin is a measure of your iron stores, and for someone who is not aerobically active, levels in the lower end of normal may not be a problem. Runners are a different story, and runners seem to do better when their levels are in the 70 range (normal is 10 - 300). Runners can lose blood from their GI tract, sweat, and from impact. Women are more at risk for low ferritin because they also lose menstrual blood. Iron is a very important element in the conversion of T4 to T3 when it comes to keeping up your thyroid levels. If your ferritin level is low, it could also be contributing to your running performance. As far as the synthroid supplement goes, it takes 6 weeks for your levels to get to a "steady state" . If you have been hypothyroid for some time, it can take another couple of months for your body to fully recover from all the hypothyroid symptoms, but you will be gradually feeling better during that time. I can't stress enough how important it is for you to get copies of your lab work. Keep your own file at home, and become an informed patient. If you know what your thyroid labs, would you mind posting them? PCOS can be caused by higher insulin levels - the higher insulin levels interfere with the normal balance of hormones related to a women's menstrual cycle. Hypothyroidism can be a contributing factor because it also intereferes with those same hormones. Did you have a glucose tolerance test done? PCOS also shows a specific pattern of ovarian cysts - were you diagnosed with PCOS based on your ultrasound? Good luck, CW and keep us posted on your progress. Cheryl