Do you know where your thyroid is? It is a butterfly-shaped gland in your neck below your Adam’s apple and it is your chief gland of energy and metabolism.

Every cell in your body has thyroid hormone receptors and you may not be aware of it, but having an underactive thyroid can have a number of debilitating effects, particularly for women as we have a 10 times greater risk than men.

Uncovering thyroid issues can be tricky as there are more than just the obvious and well known signs to look out for.

What are the signs?

The most well known are weight gain, cold sensitivity and ongoing fatigue but women who suffer from one common symptom are often experiencing 3–4 lesser–known symptoms that also signal hypothyroidism, or sluggish thyroid.

Women tend to put down many thyroid symptoms to their hormones, more specifically to menopause, but at any age they can slow down your metabolism.

The thyroid plays an active part in almost every system of your body, so it’s vital to have some awareness of what to look for.

Unfortunately, many women have thyroid tests that show “normal” hormone levels, but they still suffer from symptoms.

The late Dr John Lee – the pioneer of bioidentical progesterone cream usage – always advocated that women were the best observers of their symptoms and should trust their instincts when they feel something is not right.

Apart from the common ones already mentioned there are five key areas than can also be affected by an underactive thyroid.

1   Skin symptoms – these include:

– yellowing of palms and soles of the feet when beta-carotene builds up without enough thyroid hormone to convert it to vitamin A
– hives and psoriasis (skin redness and itching)

2   Skeletal and muscular symptoms – commonly they can be:

– muscle aches or spasms
– joint pain
– carpal tunnel syndrome
– psoriatic arthritis

3   Mental symptoms – you may not feel these relate to thyroid but you may notice:

– mental dullness or brain fog
– a level of depression
– feelings of melancholy

4   Reproductive symptoms> – mostly found in younger women such as:

– menstrual irregularities including absence of periods
– infrequent periods or abnormally heavy periods and cramps
– milky-white nipple discharge which isn’t related to breast feeding
– infertility

5   Digestive symptoms – the least recognised as they seem so ‘ordinary and everyday’ such as:

– constipation
– hard bowel movements every two days at most.

4 Things You Can You Do

1 You can start with a blood test from your doctor and then generally they prescribe medication such as thyroxine, but there are natural ways to support the thyroid and one of the most effective is with bioidentical natural progesterone.

2 Dr John Lee wrote that he was very surprised in his own medical practice withe the much greater numbers of women than men taking thyroid supplements and he also noticed that these women were suffering from oestrogen dominance, where their oestrogen levels are not in balance with their progesterone as happens after menopause, or a hysterectomy.

Supplementing with bioidentical natural progesterone to correct this situation rebalanced their hormones and he also found that it was then common to see their need for thyroid medications reduced.

3 There are also simple dietary measures you can check such as reducing caffeine and sugar, including refined carbohydrates like flour, which the body treats like sugar.

As protein transports thyroid hormone to all your tissues you need to ensure a good ratio of it in your diet from organic meat and fish,  nuts and nut butters and eggs. Don’t eliminate fat from your diet, you need it as cholesterol is the precursor to hormonal pathways so a fat-free or low-fat diet can make hormonal imbalance worse. Healthy fats include olive oil, avocados, flax seeds, oily fish, full fat cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese.

4 There are some foods that can interfere with thyroid function and these need to be reduced.They include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, turnips, millet, spinach, strawberries, peaches, watercress, peanuts, radishes, and soybeans.

They have less effect if cooked and, in the case of Hashimoto’s Disease, the body will also see offending or inflammatory foods as an invader and will up the ante on the autoimmune response.