# Hypothyroidism -- Excessive Head/Facial Sweating -- Need Advice!



## Jason21SL

Hello everyone! Very happy to have found this forum -- I'm looking for some advice. I'm a 29 y/o male and I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in July 2009 after visiting my doctor complaining of feeling tired, sweating from the face/head excessively and gaining weight abnormally (when eating heathly/exercising routinely). I started out with a 88mcg prescription of Levothyroxine and this dosage was adjusted for about a year until finally settling on a dosage of 50mcg. Throughout the last two years, I've still been excessively sweating from the head/face region, felt intolerant to heat/humidity of any kind, and feel a drastic decrease in my stamina during exercise. The Dr's blamed this on needing to get my dosage of Levo correct. After that excuse ran out, I demanded more be done -- they then diagnosed me with Anxiety and gave me Xanax to help...didn't help the sweating a bit. I've since been referred to an Internal Medicine specialist who ran a whole host of blood tests on me to try and find an underlying cause of this sweating problem. These tests have produced nothing substantial. The next course of action is to send me to a dermatologist for help with the sweating?!?

Overall, I just feel as if they're missing something here -- almost ignoring the potential Thyroid issues. Their immediate assessment is that my symptoms match up to Hyperthyroid symptoms however, my bloodwork does not reflect that problem, so in their opinion, Thyroid can't be the cause. I'm concerned though that they haven't done an in-depth investigation on my thyroid such as an ultrasound or even some more in-depth bloodwork specifically related to the Thryoid. Problem is, I'm not exactly sure what the standard course of action testing is for a Thyroid issue, so I can't debate the issue with the Dr.

I'm in the military so I see a cadre of Dr's that are probably a lot less experienced than the traditional civilian provider so I have concern that we're missing something here! Below are my lab results from the past two years along with my dosage of Levo at each test.

*Aug 11* (50mcg) 
Thyrotropin 3rd Generation *4.51 *

*March 11 *(50mcg)
Thyrotropin Sensitive *2.88 *
Thyroxine Free *1.7 ng/dL *

*Sep 10 *(50mcg)
Thyroxine Free *1.3 ng/dL *
Thyrotropin Sensitive *4.51 *

*Jul 10*(50mcg)
Thyroxine Free *1.5 ng/dL *
Thyrotropin Sensitive *5.43 *

*Feb 10* (75mcg)
Thyroxine Free *2.7 ng/dL*
Thyrotropin Sensitive* 0.01 *

*Jul 09* (88mcg)
Thyrotropin Sensitive *5.73 *
Thyroxine Free *1.4 ng/dL*

I would appreciate any help/advice you all can give me. This sweating problem is really embarrasing to me and it is ruining my quality of life. I sweat for no reason at times from the face/head and I'd do anything to find some resolution to this problem -- if you all know of any tests/courses of action I should ask the Dr's to pursure, I'm all ears!

Thanks for your time!

V/r,
Jason


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## Andros

Jason21SL said:


> Hello everyone! Very happy to have found this forum -- I'm looking for some advice. I'm a 29 y/o male and I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in July 2009 after visiting my doctor complaining of feeling tired, sweating from the face/head excessively and gaining weight abnormally (when eating heathly/exercising routinely). I started out with a 88mcg prescription of Levothyroxine and this dosage was adjusted for about a year until finally settling on a dosage of 50mcg. Throughout the last two years, I've still been excessively sweating from the head/face region, felt intolerant to heat/humidity of any kind, and feel a drastic decrease in my stamina during exercise. The Dr's blamed this on needing to get my dosage of Levo correct. After that excuse ran out, I demanded more be done -- they then diagnosed me with Anxiety and gave me Xanax to help...didn't help the sweating a bit. I've since been referred to an Internal Medicine specialist who ran a whole host of blood tests on me to try and find an underlying cause of this sweating problem. These tests have produced nothing substantial. The next course of action is to send me to a dermatologist for help with the sweating?!?
> 
> Overall, I just feel as if they're missing something here -- almost ignoring the potential Thyroid issues. Their immediate assessment is that my symptoms match up to Hyperthyroid symptoms however, my bloodwork does not reflect that problem, so in their opinion, Thyroid can't be the cause. I'm concerned though that they haven't done an in-depth investigation on my thyroid such as an ultrasound or even some more in-depth bloodwork specifically related to the Thryoid. Problem is, I'm not exactly sure what the standard course of action testing is for a Thyroid issue, so I can't debate the issue with the Dr.
> 
> I'm in the military so I see a cadre of Dr's that are probably a lot less experienced than the traditional civilian provider so I have concern that we're missing something here! Below are my lab results from the past two years along with my dosage of Levo at each test.
> 
> *Aug 11* (50mcg)
> Thyrotropin 3rd Generation *4.51 *
> 
> *March 11 *(50mcg)
> Thyrotropin Sensitive *2.88 *
> Thyroxine Free *1.7 ng/dL *
> 
> *Sep 10 *(50mcg)
> Thyroxine Free *1.3 ng/dL *
> Thyrotropin Sensitive *4.51 *
> 
> *Jul 10*(50mcg)
> Thyroxine Free *1.5 ng/dL *
> Thyrotropin Sensitive *5.43 *
> 
> *Feb 10* (75mcg)
> Thyroxine Free *2.7 ng/dL*
> Thyrotropin Sensitive* 0.01 *
> 
> *Jul 09* (88mcg)
> Thyrotropin Sensitive *5.73 *
> Thyroxine Free *1.4 ng/dL*
> 
> I would appreciate any help/advice you all can give me. This sweating problem is really embarrasing to me and it is ruining my quality of life. I sweat for no reason at times from the face/head and I'd do anything to find some resolution to this problem -- if you all know of any tests/courses of action I should ask the Dr's to pursure, I'm all ears!
> 
> Thanks for your time!
> 
> V/r,
> Jason


Hi, Jason! The numbers are really wild. As you increase your Levothyroxine, you would not expect the Thryotropin to keep on going up! Egads.

See if you think this test makes sense to you for Serum TBG.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003374.htm

And some serious in-depth antibodies and immunoglobulin tests.

TSI (thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin),TPO (antimicrosomal antibodies) TBII (thyrotropin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin), Thyroglobulin Ab, ANA (antinuclear antibodies), (thyroid hormone panel) TSH, Free T3, Free T4.

You can look this stuff up here and more.........
http://www.labtestsonline.org/

Something does not look or sound right to me and "if" you do have thyroid disease that can account for the hydrosis. Not always but many of us have had this problem and that includes myself.


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## Jason21SL

Thanks Andros, I read through the tests and to me they sound applicable -- now I just have to convince the Dr to run them! I really appreciate the advice -- I just wish I could find some resolution...so frustrating, but from reading all the posts on this board, I know I'm not alone in those frustrations!

Thanks again,
Jason


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## Octavia

Jason, welcome to the board! Andros is one of our "resident experts" in labwork, so I don't really have anything to add to what she said, but I wanted to say that you are definitely not alone in your frustrations! Hopefully you can get some of the additional labwork and keep moving forward toward a solution.


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## bigfoot

First, thank you for your service!

Second, I ran into the same thing with the first endocrinologist I saw this summer. I explained my symptoms and his words were essentially, "That sounds like hyperthyroidism, but you're hypothyroid." As I have learned since, symptoms do swing both ways, they aren't cast in concrete.

I agree with everyone else -- see if you can get some additional labs done for antibodies, etc.

:anim_32:


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