Question:
I'm a 24 year
old male. Never 'knew' I had any hormonal problems. Low sex drive,
fatigue, and a minor depression over the last few years made me think I
might have low testosterone levels. But I never did anything about it.
Just kept getting by. But about a week and a half ago, some bad anxiety
creeped up on me. Never had anxiety before. Not like this. This was
almost debilitating. Just racing thoughts, felt like I was losing it,
arms tingled, stress in the neck and legs, teeth clenched, felt foggy
headed, a bit displaced. Couldn't sleep. Bad insomnia. (Still can't,
really.) Toss and turn all night long. Sweats. So- I go to my Dr. Good friend of the family, good doctor. He listens
to me. Prescribes me Lexapro to help take away some of the anxiety and
the low level depression. He takes some blood to check levels. Couple
days later, he calls me. I have VERY low testosterone. VERY high
prolactin levels. He wants to run more tests. So he checks the thyroid.
It's off too. So, My total testosterone, free testosterone, prolactin, and TSH levels
are all pretty off. Could all these hormonal imbalances be causing me these odd feelings of
anxiety? I've read connections between this stuff. I'm hoping I don't
just have an anxiety disorder and that it really IS all the hormonal
stuff. I don't know why, but it would make me feel better.
Answer:
Yes, hormonal imbalances can cause anxiety, irritability, insomnia, sweats,
and mood swings (as any woman with PMS will tell you). As to whether this
is your problem, I'm not enough of an expert to know what those numbers
mean. Most reponsible psychiatrists get these blood tests to rule out
physical problems before diagnosing a mood disorder. I hope your problems
are easy to fix. Maybe you should do some reading on Premenstrual Dysphoric Syndrome.
The SSRI's can help out. I also know of some women who get testosterone
injections for their depression. So the low testosterone levels could
account for that. I'm not so good at lab tests, but if your free testosterone is normal, I think
that means you are normal. You are actually in the high normal range. I don't
think they treat this--but I'm not sure. Your thyroid tests are using a different standard than I'm used to. Remember
that "normal" is only normal for 50% of the population. That means that the
other 50% may have not so normal readings, but they are normal for that person. You are missing a free T3 report. Your TSH is very high--this can mean a myriad
of thyroid disorders. Also, you need to be tested for thyroid anti-bodies.
Keep pushing this one, as your doc may say since your free T4 is normal, you
have nothing to worry about. That is NOT true. I had high normal thyroid antibodies. All other tests were normal. One day, I
noticed a BIG lump on my neck. Turns out my thyroid anti-bodies were eating up
too much of the thyroid my body produced. I had two tumors on my thyroid. I
was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. A form of
hypothyroidism. This is NOT related to long term lithium use. Long term lithium use has been correlated with a small number of people becoming
hypothyroid. Treatment is easy--just take a very small pill once a day. I had one of the tumors (goiter) removed on January 10th. On Tuesday, I had
emergency surgery for a hematoma.
