Can you please help with deciphering my results?

[Zubakuki]

Serum tsh level 0.03mu/L

Serum free T4 level 18.4pmol/L

Serum free triiodothyronine level 5.3pmol/L

The doctor wants to drop my levothyroxine, I am currently on 125mcg.

I still feel tired all the time

Thanks in advance.

Donna

[shaws Administrator]

Email [e-mail] and ask for a copy of the Pulse Online article by Dr Toft ex of the British Thyroid Association. Make a copy for your GP and highlight quesion 6 wherein he will see that some of us need a suppressed TSH or the addition of T3. Leave it at the surgery for him/her to read before your next appointment where you can discuss the topic.When you post blood test results always include the ranges as it makes it easier for members to comment.

This is an extract and go to the question dated January 25, 2002 to read the whole answer:-

Dr Lowe: Your observations don’t suggest to me that your pituitary gland isn’t functioning properly. In fact, your observations are consistent with what science tells us about a patient's T4 dose, her TSH level, and her metabolic health or lack of it. If the goal of a doctor is metabolic health for his patient, he has no scientific basis for adjusting her thyroid hormone dose by her TSH level. If the doctor is going to make the imprudent choice of treating the patient with T4 (rather than T3 or a T3/T4 combination), he should be aware of the relevant physiology and treat her on the basis of it. Otherwise, he's likely to ruin her health, as your doctor appears to be doing to yours.

The TSH level is not well synchronized with the tissue metabolic rate. (Probably most doctors falsely assume that studies have shown that the TSH and metabolic rate are synchronized. But despite my diligently searching for years for such studies, I’ve yet to find them.) Adjusting the T4 dose by the TSH level is like adjusting the speed of your car by a speedometer that's out of synchrony with the actual speed of the car. Adjusting the speed of a car by an out-of-sync speedometer, of course, will get the driver into trouble—either with other drivers who'll object to the car traveling too slowly, or with a police officer who'll object to the car going too fast. And adjusting the thyroid hormone dose by the TSH level gets most patients in trouble—almost always because their tissue metabolism is so slow that they are sick.

[Zubakuki in reply to shaws]

Have emailed Louise thank you. Do you mean the levels they recommend my results fall within? Many thanks, Donna

[Glynisrose]

DO NOT let your doctor reduce your dosage!! If you say nothing it is tantemount to agreeing with what the doctor says. You should be going on how you feel not what the numbers say.