Did your blood tests for hypothyroidism come back as being normal even though you suffer from fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, depression, or weight gain? Do your hormone levels come back as being normal or within the normal reference range, yet you are still struggling with fertility issues?
Many doctors dismiss thyroid symptoms because of an incomplete blood test or ranges that are too wide. Similarly, when you have difficulty conceiving, and the lab values appear to be within a normal reference range, you are diagnosed as having infertility.
In functional medicine, however, we use blood tests to screen for hypothyroidism before it gets too advanced for most doctors to catch. In the case of infertility, we use functional testing and ranges that help us evaluate your hormone levels even when they appear to be “normal”.
Functional levels of hormones with hypothyroidism and fertility
Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of symptoms instead of overriding them with drugs or surgery. One tool we use to accomplish this is to interpret blood tests using functional ranges, which outline the parameters of good health.
In contrast, the ranges most doctors use are based on a bell-curve analysis of all the people who visited that lab over a certain period of time, many of whom are very sick. These lab ranges have broadened over the last few decades as health of the American population has declined. As a result, many people with real health problems are told they’re ok because their results fall within these ranges.
For instance, the lab ranges for hypothyroidism are often overly wide so that many people are told they’re fine when in fact they have hypothyroidism. Another example, is if you have fertility issues, and your progesterone levels appear to be within the reference range, yet they are functionally low and this may be contributing to your luteal phase deficiency.
Looking for patterns that contribute to hypothyroidism and infertility
Because functional medicine is based on an in-depth knowledge of human physiology and how various systems in the body work together, we also look at a blood test for patterns instead of just looking at individual markers. By doing this, we see how these different systems influence one another to cause a constellation of symptoms.
For instance, instead of just looking at a single lab value, we may evaluate immune, hormonal, blood sugar, or stress imbalances that may be causing hypothyroid symptoms, or fertility issues. Of course, there are many other factors that you may not be aware of to be contributing to your low thyroid, or infertility.
Ready to find out more? Schedule your initial visit to learn more.
