PCOS Message Board - View Single Post

shenacat · 03-13-2004, 11:38 AM

One of the oddities of thyroid hormone replacement is that as you start normalizing your levels, new symptoms can pop up related to thyroid disease that you didn't have previous. Luckily they should also clear away as you progress in healing, but it can confuse people because it seems like you're getting worse before you get better.

Carpal tunnel is a symptom of low thyroid, believe it or not. I suffered from symptoms of carpal tunnel for years before I was treated - after I was optimized on medication, the only time I *ever* experienced symptoms again was when I needed a medication adjustment. It was just as you say, the outside fingers of my hand would go numb. Also my wrist would ache, hurt and not stop hurting until I wrapped it up in an ace bandage for a day or so to reduce swelling.

The reason carpal tunnel like symptoms occur with hypothyroidism is that hypothyroidism causes edema - another word for hypothyroidism is myxedema or non-pitting edema. The swelling will pinch nerves, and the pinching of the nerve will cause carpal tunnel problems (also tennis elbow, other things like that). The swelling can cause other issues like ringing in your ears (tinnitus) and so forth.

Other conditions that cause you to retain water will have similar effects. During pregnancy since you retain water it is common to complain of carpal tunnel and ringing in the ears.

I'd suggest getting a wrist brace or ace bandages and wearing them at night. For some reason it's how you sleep a lot of the time that exacerbates the swelling, and if you can nip it in the bud at night you do better during the day.