Re: Is this low cortisol and AF? What to do next?

Hey stardust,

Im waiting for saliva results too so looking at yours and trying to figure them out is good practice :-)
I've been reading 'stop the thyroid madness' and theres a large section in there on test results - still trying to understand it fully - it's hard to conclude that a low value means you need to supplement...as looking at all the values as a whole, including symptoms should give a better picture of what's going on.

Your cortisol values are all in the lower part of the reference ranges. So that could explain why your testosterone is low and progesterone values are in the lower part of the range...as your body is using pregnenolone to make cortisol instead of making prog. and T.

Estrogen and prog. ratio is low and way out of range indicating estrogen dominance.

Thyroid values again all in the lower part of the reference range, which could be caused by the adrenals, down-regulating thyroid function.

Tyrosine converts to dopamine, when levels get too high we get suspicious, paranoid, anxious...so i think that's why tyrosine didn't work for you. Helps to conclude that perhaps you don't have low levels of dopamine, and possibly increasing serotonin is something you need more than dopamine.

Perhaps you had bad reactions to dessicated thyroid because you weren't supporting the adrenals first. The increased thyroid hormones would have been asking your adrenals for more adrenal hormones, which you obviously are low on, so hence the increased symptoms of headaches, nausea which tend to be seen in low cortisol.

Whatever treatment route you choose, whether herbs, adaptogens, glandulars or medication - your labs certainly suggest adrenals need to be given attention first.
Take the strain off of the progenolone steal cycle...so that your progesterone and testosterone values will naturally come up if you supplement with isocort or HC.

By taking the strain off of the adrenals it will allow the thryoid to be given the chance to work better, and will allow other hormones levels to normalise.

I don't see the harm any longer of using HC to go this route when used in physiological doses and not hugely high pharmacological doses.
HC has been given a bad rap over the years due to the pharma industries experimentation with huge doses of it, that the body would never produce...thus rendering most people with Cushing's followed by Adrenal Insufficiency.

My auntie suffered with this way of medicating with HUGE pharmacological doses of HC and it was a disaster on her body. Myxoedema eventually killed her, and the physicians didn't once look at adrenal hormones!

Low iron can mimic symptoms of hypothyroidism. If your values are low try to focus on bringing them up to normal and see if that reduces symptoms. It's something talked about in stop the thyroid madness book, and very much is the other thing to get in range to help symptom reduction.

From your pupil test that indicates adrenal issues. Another reason to focus on supporting their function.

You might find supplementing with progesterone to not affect hormone levels, due to your adrenals needing to make more cortisol to come up to better numbers.
Whereas if you were to take Isocort or HC, coupled with bio-identical progesterone, both cortisol and sex hormone levels would increase.

I personally have been down the route of adaptogens, herbs and not found relief either...just more wayward symptoms. These substances encourage the body to make more of what it already isn't managing to make more of. So in effect other hormonal levels get affected when there just isn't enough raw hormone building substance to go around to balance all levels, because there is a ROOT problem 'somewhere' causing all this imbalance.

Cholesterol is the substance the body uses to make hormones. It turns it into pregnenolone, with the help of thyroid hormones. If your thyroid is low, as yours is, due to perhaps 'primarily' adrenal problems, then you're going to have a problem right from the start with manufacturing hormones.

So focusing on the adrenals to see if that alone helps boost thyroid function, which will help with improving all your other sex hormone levels.

If after boosting adrenal function and iron levels, you still have the hypothyroid symptoms, a thyroid boosting protocol would need to be added.

It really would be a good idea to find an endocrine naturopathic doctor online to do an hours consulation with you over these results. John R Lee MD, Dr Rind, and those kind of practitioners would be useful.
There would be no 6 month wait - and it shouldn't be too extortionate to get you started off.

Best of luck to you.