Hypo for 33 yrs

[Littlemisstired]

Hi I have been hypo all my life since I was a baby, and even though I don't feel terrible like some people have experienced I still don't feel quite right, not that I know what quite right should feel like, as I've had this all my life. I have never really had the thyroid explained to me as an adult, having this as a child I looked at mum for guidance. But even then t4 and t3 wasn't explained to us, nor what food and drink you should stay away from and even the importance of when you should take your pills. First thing, before a meal? My symptoms are still over weight, tiredness, slow slurred speech at times, slow reaction, brittle nails, hair falls out, brain foggy ness, depressed, no sex drive, no drive, and moody at times. My recent blood results are tsh was 0.5 now 0.8 and free t4 19.1 and t3 4.8 are these right, can someone explain the levels as I have never had the table levels explained to me. Or I was too young to understand and take it in when they did. I am on t4 the levothyroxine 200mg. Every time I go to docs they say I'm normal, been that way for years, but still have these symptoms. I just go away thinking its me I'm just lazy and feel low that this is it! It's only now that I've started reading up on it.

Thanks

Karen

[Moggie]

Every lab has different ranges but in general your T4 needs to be fairly high in range as does your T3, BUT this is only what thyroid hormone is in your blood not what's getting into your cells, where it needs to be to stop symptoms. Getting T3 into your cells depends on lots of things but first your body has to convert the T4 you are taking into the T3 that it needs and both depend on lots of thing.

If you are still having symptoms the you could either have a conversion problem as your T3 seems quite low (its hard to tell as you haven't got your ranges) or your body may be struggling to transport the T3 into your cells.

Have you ever had your B12, VitD, iron, ferritin (iron your body has stored in reserve) or folates tested as all this can hinder both your conversion to T3 and the uptake of T3 into your cells. If you have could you please add these to your post with ranges - these are the figures in brackets after the actual result.

Moggie x

[Littlemisstired in reply to Moggie]

Thanks for your post no I haven't I will try and get a print out and these other tests done. Thanks for your help. Can you not tell anything from what I have given you or do you need brackets?

Karen

[skyfall in reply to Littlemisstired]

Suggest you try this process...it'll take you through all your symptoms (it's symptom vs test driven; you can do tests to check out symptoms).

wilsonhealth360.com/#!manag...

Start with the Symptom Checker it's the first bubble. It covers the top 12 autoimmune diseases (NHS and doctor verified).

You may have other things going on by now.

I've been hypo for 11 years but that wasn't all that was going on....

[Littlemisstired in reply to skyfall]

Thanks skyfall

[Moggie in reply to Littlemisstired]

From what you have posted (and IF your ranges are similar to mine) then, as I said you are either not converting the levo your are taking (T4) into T3 or it is being hindered getting where is should be going as your TSH is fairly low and your FT4 is fairly high, which means you are absorbing your levo o.k. but as your FT3 is quite low this could indicate something isn't right with the conversion process. Low iron can be the cause of this, not that I am saying you have low iron but it is on the list of things to get checked out.

Get the vitamins checked and lets see what's low and what's not as I have a suspicion this could be your problem.

Moggie

[Littlemisstired in reply to Moggie]

Thanks moggie

[Littlemisstired]

Tsh= 0.8 ( 0.4-5.5)

T4 = 19.1 ( 11.5-22.7)

T3= 4.8 ( 3.5-6.5)

Does this help in the mean time

Thanks

Karen

[Moggie in reply to Littlemisstired]

Yep - like I said you could have convertion or uptake issue's which certain vitamins can hinder.

Moggie x