Elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH): How is it treated?

High PTH is caused by your parathyroid gland releasing too much PTH. PTH and calcium work together to keep each other in balance. If the PTH is high, the calcium should be very low. Or vice versa. If both are high or even at the high normal, you need to get it checked out. You should get the both the PTH and calcium tested in the same blood draw. Sometimes if the Vit D is low, it will cause the calcium to be high. My calcium ranged from 9.9 - 11.2 over 5 years before I was diagnosed with Hyperparathyroidism. They didn't check my PTH until my calcium was finally flagged as high. The only "cure" for this is to have the parathyroid gland removed that has the adenoma (tumor) on it. You need a surgeon who performs at least 50 of these a year as it is highly specialized. There are many symptoms of Hyperparathyroidism but most can be blamed on something else. I had about half of them. I went to Mayo in Rochester for final diagnosis, surgery consult and surgery. I was VERY happy with the drs and treatment. They ran all the necessary tests within 24 hours that confirmed the diagnosis. They range from blood tests, 24 hour urine, bone density scan and a nuclear scan. It was an outpatient surgery. I was in the hospital for 6 hours total. They removed one adenoma. They use interoperative PTH testing and that is how they know that the correct parathyroid gland was removed. A person has 4 glands and they can all be affected. They have to leave 1/2 of one. In my case, my PTH dropped from 77 to 15 so they knew the one gland that showed up on the nuclear scan was the only one. I started to feel better immediately, my symptoms all went away within a week. I was lucky because I had very limited bone density loss and when I get it rechecked, they feel it will be normal again. I also did not have any kidney stones which are very common with this disease. Good luck.

High PTH is caused by your parathyroid gland releasing too much PTH. PTH and calcium work together to keep each other in balance. If the PTH is high, the calcium should be very low. Or vice versa. If both are high or even at the high normal, you need to get it checked out. You should get the both the PTH and calcium tested in the same blood draw. Sometimes if the Vit D is low, it will cause the calcium to be high. My calcium ranged from 9.9 - 11.2 over 5 years before I was diagnosed with Hyperparathyroidism. They didn't check my PTH until my calcium was finally flagged as high. The only "cure" for this is to have the parathyroid gland removed that has the adenoma (tumor) on it. You need a surgeon who performs at least 50 of these a year as it is highly specialized. There are many symptoms of Hyperparathyroidism but most can be blamed on something else. I had about half of them. I went to Mayo in Rochester for final diagnosis, surgery consult and surgery. I was VERY happy with the drs and treatment. They ran all the necessary tests within 24 hours that confirmed the diagnosis. They range from blood tests, 24 hour urine, bone density scan and a nuclear scan. It was an outpatient surgery. I was in the hospital for 6 hours total. They removed one adenoma. They use interoperative PTH testing and that is how they know that the correct parathyroid gland was removed. A person has 4 glands and they can all be affected. They have to leave 1/2 of one. In my case, my PTH dropped from 77 to 15 so they knew the one gland that showed up on the nuclear scan was the only one. I started to feel better immediately, my symptoms all went away within a week. I was lucky because I had very limited bone density loss and when I get it rechecked, they feel it will be normal again. I also did not have any kidney stones which are very common with this disease. Good luck.

High PTH is caused by your parathyroid gland releasing too much PTH. PTH and calcium work together to keep each other in balance. If the PTH is high, the calcium should be very low. Or vice versa. If both are high or even at the high normal, you need to get it checked out. You should get the both the PTH and calcium tested in the same blood draw. Sometimes if the Vit D is low, it will cause the calcium to be high. My calcium ranged from 9.9 - 11.2 over 5 years before I was diagnosed with Hyperparathyroidism. They didn't check my PTH until my calcium was finally flagged as high. The only "cure" for this is to have the parathyroid gland removed that has the adenoma (tumor) on it. You need a surgeon who performs at least 50 of these a year as it is highly specialized. There are many symptoms of Hyperparathyroidism but most can be blamed on something else. I had about half of them. I went to Mayo in Rochester for final diagnosis, surgery consult and surgery. I was VERY happy with the drs and treatment. They ran all the necessary tests within 24 hours that confirmed the diagnosis. They range from blood tests, 24 hour urine, bone density scan and a nuclear scan. It was an outpatient surgery. I was in the hospital for 6 hours total. They removed one adenoma. They use interoperative PTH testing and that is how they know that the correct parathyroid gland was removed. A person has 4 glands and they can all be affected. They have to leave 1/2 of one. In my case, my PTH dropped from 77 to 15 so they knew the one gland that showed up on the nuclear scan was the only one. I started to feel better immediately, my symptoms all went away within a week. I was lucky because I had very limited bone density loss and when I get it rechecked, they feel it will be normal again. I also did not have any kidney stones which are very common with this disease. Good luck.

Hello @sennertd

I see that this is your first post on Mayo Connect and I would like to welcome you. I so appreciate all of the first-hand information you provided about your experience with hyperparathyroidism. It sounds like your surgery went well and that you are feeling much better now.

How did they know to remove just "one adenoma." Was that from the nuclear scan?

My tests have just been included in the overall blood testing that the primary care doctor has been doing every four momths. The mg/dl calcium is not signifigantly elevated at 10.4 By the way, he has had surgery for the condition and showed me the scar. I have had edema in my ankles recently and now have to wear compression socks during the day which seems to reduce the swelling.

Thank you for the information. I have had osteoporsis for many years which was once controlled by medication but it caused digestive problems so don't take anything to combat it.

The latest primary care doctor (I have had four different ones in the past ten years who either dropped out of the profession or left the clinic) who is treating me is also a geriatric specialist and at the first visit with him he ordered the first test I have ever had for PTH. The followup test a couple of months later showed the elevated parathyroid hormone.

I am now taking 1 weekly 50,000 IU vitamin D2 and 1 daily 2000 IU D3 vitamin as the latest test results shows a D reading of 21.8 ng/mi.

How is your doctor treating the PTH and what is the prognosis?

Yes, I have dealt with elevated PTH. One of the parathyroid glands was enlarged and was causing the problem. I had surgery in September, 2018 to remove the gland which was 750mg as opposed to the normal 15-30mg. I developed osteopenia as a result of the parathyroid gland. I also had excruciating bone pain and fatigue which impacted my Fibromyalgia tremendously. When I awoke from the surgery the first thing I noticed was that the bone pain was gone. I recovered quickly overall but it did take me several weeks to regain my normal voice.

Hi:
Who did your Parathyroid Surgery?