Just before I was formally diagnosed with a thyroid condition I remember looking at a list of possible symptoms of Hashimoto’s flare up and about 90% of them sounded all too familiar.
Then when it was suggested to me that the cause of my thyroid issues could be an auto-immune and I looked at the symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease, I wanted to cry.
For as long as I could remember I have had so many of these symptoms of Hashimoto’s flare up, but no one (myself included) had ever put all of my symptoms together and treated me as a whole person. Instead, I’d been treated for migraine, depression anxiety, insomnia, etc, etc all as separate issues. At no point did any medical professional I saw ever try to dig a little deeper and look at all of the pieces of the puzzle.
This list of symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease are some of the lesser obvious things, the things that surprised me to find out were in fact a symptom of Hashimoto’s. Many of these things I have and didn’t even realize it was the Hashimoto’s until much later on.
1. Thin eyebrows
I think I noticed my eyebrows first disappearing back in the 00’s. Of course, I did some over plucking back in the day but not to the extent that they are now. Nothing I do can make them come back. Thank god for microblading!
2. Hair loss
I think this is one of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s flare up that both upset and surprised me the most. For years I’ve been losing my hair and it has been something that I’ve found deeply upsetting. I used to be a person who had her hair thinned out as I had so much. Now I hate to wear my hair tied back because it’s so thin at the front. I also tend to leave it curly more now so it at least looks thicker than it is.
3. Lack of control of emotions
When my Hashimoto’s is causing my levels to be off it’s like the worst PMS moods, but all the time. More often than not my inability to control my emotions is also tied into some of the other symptoms like my inability to form sentences. Which moves me nicely on…
4. Unable to form clear sentences
It’s funny because I often put this particular symptom of Hashimoto’s down to my dyslexia. These days I’m not even sure where the dyslexic ends and where Hashimoto’s begins.
When I’m in the brain fog (a daily occurrence right now as I’m in a flare up) I can hardly make sentences. I can’t hold on to thoughts long enough to put them into actual words and then speak those words. Not being able to communicate how I’m feeling is excruciating for me and those feelings of frustration quite often leak out of my eyes.
5. Memory loss
You know that conversation we had about those things you asked me to do 30 minutes ago? Well, I already forgot about it.
So, when you get mad at me for not doing those things you asked me to do, that I can’t remember. I’m probably just going to start crying. Because I also can’t use my words to form the sentences to tell you that I’m sick and that I can’t remember.
So you’re going to get even madder and think I’m stupid.
I’m not stupid. I’m just sick.
6. Infertility and miscarriages
This is actually the thing that gets many women diagnosed, believe it or not. Many women present at the doctor with infertility issues and when they run labs they discover that it is their thyroid causing their infertility and miscarriages.
7. Low libido
I mean, I don’t know why I was surprised about this. It makes sense really, some days I’m so tired I can barely drag myself into the shower. The last thing I want to do is have sex. I just want to sleeeeeppp.
8. Difficulty to hydrate
Do you have any idea how many glasses of water I drink a day? Too many. And still, I look and feel dehydrated. I just didn’t get it. Then when I was talking about this with my Ayurveda practitioner she suggested that like everything else I’m putting into my body, my body just isn’t able to process it. Now I have a few tricks up my sleeve to combat this, I’ve noticed a big difference. Read this
9. Unable to regulate body temperature
I have to live in a hot climate. In colder places, I feel like I’m dying. I’m not even being dramatic, ok well maybe a bit. But it’s the truth. It also doesn’t help that it causes my circulation to also be poor. Therefore I either need to raise my feet up off the floor, or I’ll put a hot water bottle under my feet. Even here in sunny Mexico, my feet can feel like ice blocks.
10. Insomnia
This is one of the symptoms that puzzled me for a while. I always believed that insomnia was more of a Hyperthyroid issue, not hypo. Until I realized that it’s my anxiety, caused by my Hashimoto’s that is then triggering insomnia. So many things trigger insomnia, it’s one of the issues you need to tackle first. Not having good sleep hygiene and having that solid 8 hours of rest and rejuvenation is going to seriously affect everything. To be able to function and heal you have to rest.
