Thyropause or low thyroid may be making your menopause or andropause symptoms worse.
By now, most people are familiar with the concept of age-related hormone change. Women experience this change as menopause, while men experience andropause. Most of the time, treatment involves replacing the primary hormone that has declined. For women, this means estrogen. For men, it means testosterone. Unfortunately, this treatment approach ignores another important age-related hormone change that both men and women may experience: thyropause.
Thyropause is a colloquial term for low thyroid or hypothyroidism. Without sufficient thyroid hormone, your metabolism won’t work properly and you’ll also have trouble regulating the balance of your other hormones. Thyropause can actually be worsened by replacing estrogen or testosterone alone, which is why many men and women struggle to find relief from the following thyroid-related menopause and andropause symptoms:
- Fatigue
- Weight Gain
- Hair Loss
- Insomnia
- Memory Problems
- Mood Changes
- Skin Changes
Why Most Doctors Don’t Diagnose Thyropause
Unfortunately, many doctors follow outdated protocols for menopause and andropause treatment that do not call for testing or treating thyroid imbalances. And even among doctors who do test for thyroid, the testing is often done incorrectly.
There are actually two types of testosterone in the body, T3 and T4. T4 is the type of thyroid your body stores, while T3 is the type your body actually uses for 80 percent of thyroid function. Therefore, testing for T4 and for Thyroid Stimulating Hormone—as most doctors do—provides a very incomplete picture of what’s really going on with your thyroid function.
Common Thyropause Treatment Mistakes
Even if you are fortunate enough to find a doctor who recognizes you are suffering from thyropause, you may not get the effective treatment you need. First of all, most doctors use synthetic T4. While this will raise T4 levels, it may not help T3 as much as it should since the body often has trouble breaking synthetic T4 down into T3. To make matters worse, many doctors will not even give you the amount of T4 you need to feel your best, since they only boost levels to the low end of the normal range.
Another problem is that many doctors don’t consider the impact that cortisol can have on T3 levels. High cortisol will block T3 production, making it imperative to test and treat cortisol levels along with thyroid.
Get Comprehensive Treatment at Renew Youth™
At Renew Youth™, we offer comprehensive hormone replacement therapy for andropause and menopause that takes into account all your vital hormones, including thyroid and cortisol. We test for T3 and its functional form, T3 free, to make sure we understand what our clients really need. If T3 free is low, we replace it to the upper end of the healthy range using bioidentical thyroid containing both T4 and T3.
If you would like to learn more about our treatments, please contact us at 800-859-7511 today.