It's been awhile since you posted this so you have your answer by now I would guess. But for any others reading this, get checked again for your thyroid -- and go to a different doctor. I had been thin all my life but started gaining weight, having irregular periods, and swelling in my neck when I was about 26. I had no family history of thyroid problems in my family so I just chalked it up to stress and not enough exercise. Then in one year when I was 34 I started gaining weight like crazy even though I had not changed my eating habits. So I went to a doctor and asked him to test my thyroid. He did and it came back negative. I was surprised and somewhat disappointed. He said it must be that my metabolism was just slowing down as I was getting older. So I ended up gaining about 60 pounds that year and then my weight stabilized somewhat. Then I had a baby and gained 22 pounds, but lost those pounds over time (baby was almost 10 pounds). A year later I moved to another state and went to a new doctor. When I mentioned the year of the rapid weight gain and how I couldn't understand that it wasn't thyroid-related, she said we should just go ahead and test my thyroid again. Bottomline, it was my thyroid and had been all along. She said my thyroid was totally inactive and had to have been that way for many, many years based on the condition it was in. She was amazed I had enough energy to get out of the bed in the morning. That was about 9 years ago and I have taken thyroid medicatioin ever since. So if one doctor tells you that it isn't your thyroid, go ahead and get a second opinion. I sure wish I had done that earlier.