A Year of Naturopathic Medicine
Last October, I was exhausted.
It wasn’t quite as bad as the autumn before, when I realized that lump in my neck might be why I was able to sleep for 11 hours a night and not feel well rested the next day. I had half my thyroid removed for a smidge of cancer and was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an underactive thyroid.
Despite my underachieving half a thyroid, I didn’t go on any thyroid medication. As micro as my microcarcinoma was, I felt much better once I recovered from my surgery. But a year later, the fatigue had crept back into my life. My thyroid levels were coming back normal from the lab, my ultrasounds were clear. But of course, there was still the endometriosis, a known cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, not to mention all the work I was putting into managing it. And you know, all the nutrients I was losing with my period each month, and I am sure half a dozen other causes of fatigue.
I had seen my endocrinologist for my yearly checkup, and she gave me my choice — I could go on synthetic thyroid hormone, or I could wait. Eventually, I’d have to. Hashimoto’s is degenerative, and that little semi-thyroid will continue to erode as I get older. Technically, though my labwork was normal, what is considered the “normal” range for thyroid hormones also includes abnormal conditions, like say, half a thyroid or Hashimoto’s. Don’t ask me what genius decided that was a good standard to go by. I remembered my surgeon telling me that women in particular often go through life feeling low-grade crappy due to an underactive thyroid that keeps spitting out “normal” results.
Still, I wasn’t wild about starting a life-long drug any sooner than I had to, and I wondered if more wasn’t going on. If my endo was better under control, would I have more energy? If I could get higher-quality sleep, maybe I’d feel better. If I could get my cycles to last longer than 24 days, spacing my periods further apart, then I wouldn’t bleed so often and maybe lose less precious iron. I started exploring adrenal fatigue, not a “medically recognized” condition, but any stressed out, type A woman in her 30s who spends every day grinding against the patriarchy will tell you that shit is real.
But I wasn’t sure what to do.
