<img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1452" alt="Dry Heels Image: 123rf" src="http://www.hormonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Dry-Heels-123rf-100x150.jpg" width="100" height="150" />Yes, it's true - I'm cracking up!  But truth be told I've been cracking up for years - my entire adult life actually.  Well minus a recent few healthy years.

I'm talking about my skin - the skin on my heels and the skin on my hands specifically have been cracking again.   Long long ago, when I was in my twenties my heels would crack so bad they would bleed.  Sometimes it would hurt just to walk.  My fingers would crack open as well and bleed.  I hated putting them into water - it would sting so badly.

Over the years I was told various things by various people.  Dry skin apparently was my problem so I would spend money on special creams for cracked heels. Or I'd be told my skin was simply dehyrdated and I needed to drink more water. Once, years ago, I finally mentioned it to a doctor and she told me to slather cream on my tootsies and then cover them with vaseline (endocrine disrupter alert!) and wrap my feet all up in saran wrap.  I never considered pedicures a luxury - they were a necessity!  I mean, I grew up in the Canadian prairies &amp; eventually lived North of 65º.  The Arctic is considered a desert - it gets mighty cold and <em>extremely</em> dry.  So with all of this great advice I chalked my problem up to good old fashioned dry skin.

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism but the word hypothyroidism wasn't even used and it didn't really feel like a "diagnosis".  My doctor mentioned that my thyroid hormone levels were a bit off and based on my symptom checklist he was prescribing dessicated thyroid hormone for me.  Ok I figured, no big deal.  I didn't think I had any severe symptoms of someone with low thyroid.  I knew that there was a connection to estrogen so I didn't really think too much of it.  In fact, thinking back I probably didn't take it seriously enough -  like not paying attention to whether I'd waited the allotted hour before eating after taking my meds &amp; washing my morning pill down with my first cup of morning coffee!  At one point I even decided that since I had my estrogen dominance all under control that I  probably didn't need to worry about this silly thyroid medication.

So for these past couple of years I have been on dessicated thyroid hormone but it's only been recently that I've discovered the link between my thyroid function and the symptoms I've had - most of them for my entire life.  Some are so obscure that I didn't even know they were related.

Here's the interesting part about my thyroid symptoms - I never stopped taking my thyroid hormone when I stopped the progesterone.  But my thyroid symptoms got worse or re-appeared after I quit taking the progesterone.  And even though I am back on my progesterone, the thyroid symptoms linger.  Here's a few of the symptoms that I've noticed getting worse recently:
<ul>
	<li><strong>itching - oh my gosh the itching!!!</strong>  My scalp itches and my shins itch so bad I  finally use my cracked heels to scratch my shins but then my shins bleed!  <strong>But especially the Internal itching of ears!</strong>  This is a little know symptom of hypothyroidism even among doctors!  OMG....it has been driving me crazy.</li>
	<li><strong>sugar cravings!  </strong>I can say I have never had cravings for sugar like this in my life.  I have been scrounging around the house looking for any sign of chocolate.  Even considering getting out of my pj's late at night and running to the store for Chocolate!</li>
	<li><strong>varicose veins</strong> have suddenly gone crazy again.  I've treated them for years but suddenly they are popping up in droves!</li>
</ul>
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