Gosh guys, I'm not sure what to do. At the moment I'm trying to balance my cortisol. A year ago when I worked, my cortisol was so consistently high, even with taking powerful cortisol-lowering substances, that I had to quit. This year I've found that my body is much better at adjusting. My cortisol goes high at first with extra stimulation, but after several days or a week my body starts to recover.

When I started teaching a week and a half ago, my cortisol shot up and I was anxious, having crying spells, jittery, etc. I take a supplement called Relora when that happens and it helps tremendously. The past few days, though, I'm experiencing some big drops in energy and motivation, and I think it's because my body is adjusting to the stimulation and I need less Relora. I'm trying to baance it. Low cortisol sometimes contributes to my sleep problems. Last night I dozed off at 9pm while watching a Shakespeare play I need to teach, and I was wide awake at 5am again.

But yes, I agree I'd like to know what's happening with my thyroid and hormones. I'm finally going to be earning more money with my job. A big portion of it is going to have to be spent on things we haven't been able to afford to repair and which are falling apart. But I might be able to manage the £200 I would need for a mail-order hormone test. Not sure what to do about the thyroid. That centre in California looks nice. Don't know if there's anything similar here, but I imagine it wouldn't be cheap. Dawn, did you say you were taking a thyroid supplement yourself? How did you arrive at a diagnosis?

I take a lot of supplements and while I want to feel better, I'm conscious of seeing still more of my money being drained that way; I'd want to feel sure it was money well spent.

This wouldn't be such a lot of guesswork if the doctors we pay our taxes for here were anything other than useless.