Low Haemoglobin with Hashi's?

[DaizeeFoo]

I have been diagnosed for just over a year and so far things are going ok. Last blood tests thus:

TSH: 1.7 mIU/L range 0.3-3.94 (no change from 175mg Levo per day to 175mg/200mg every other day.Levo now up to 200mg per day)

No fT4 reading as the lab refuses to test it.

(Last fT4 reading 14.8pmol/L range 12.3-20.2 in December 2013)

Serum Ferritin 55 ug/L range 13-150 up from 43ug/L in September 2013

Serum Vitamin B12 493 ng/L range 191-663 down from 514 in September 2013

Serum Folate 5.2 mIU/L range 4.6-18.7 down from 8.3 in September 2013

Serum Vitamin D 84 nmol/L just inside replete up from 65nmol/L in December 2013

Total white blood cell count 5.4 10^9/L range 3.7-11.1 down from 6.2 10^9/L in September 2013

Red Blood Cell Count 3.9 10^12/L range 4.32-5.6010 - been 4.00 since they have been measuring it so I have been below normal since at least April 2013

Haemoglobin estimation 118 g/l range 120-150 has been dropping from 128 in April 2013, then 121 in September 2013

Mean Corpuscle Hb Con. 321 g/l range 320-350 up from 317 in September 2013

Serum cholesterol 4.3 mmol/L down from 5 in December 2013

Plasma glucose level 4.9 mmol/L down from 5 in September 2013

Some of my other blood cell readings have dropped but are still within range.

Everything else good. Even had a Serum ALT reading for my liver slightly out of range last time but now back up.

I am classed as slightly anaemic but not sure where the anaemia is. My ferritin has increased and my B12 is a good level. Folate has dropped but could this be the cause? Consistantly under range Red blood cell count could just be normal for me

Anyone have any idea what might be causing the anaemia?

[gabkad]

What reallyfedup123 wrote and take folate probably at 1 mg per day. If the RDI is 400 mcg and you are low, then you'll need a boost.

Are you getting heavy periods?

[DaizeeFoo]

They have got lighter. They were so bad before being diagnosed I just couldn't go out as I needed to change every 15 mins to half an hour. However they are I guess still quite heavy and although they are not always 28 days sometimes 5-6 weeks in between, they are still 8-9 days long which they have been all my life.

I stopped taking folic acid last October as the Endo said so. I still have a bottle of Solar folic acid.

[Alley27]

Hi. May I ask how you are on medication with hashis....I have been diagnosed over a year now and my endo still will not prescribe anything for me.....I live in Yorkshire so don't know if it's post code related.....I just don't get why I am not allowed treatment xx

[Clutter in reply to Alley27]

Connie, treatment will be dependent on your TSH level. Post a question with your thyroid function test results and antibody levels with lab ref ranges and members will comment/advise.

[DaizeeFoo in reply to Alley27]

In April last year my TSH was over 10 so I have been on Levothyroxine since then. You can have Hashi's without a high TSH in the beginning.

[DaizeeFoo]

I went to my doc and she agreed a course of Ferrous Fumarate was worth a try, especially as my B12 had dropped and I am taking B12 sublingually. I am on 200mg twice a day for 8 weeks.

She was also fed up that the labs are ignoring requests for fT4 readings from her and we are pretty sure the lab will ignore the Endo's request of fT4 and fT3 because they did last time. The senior lab bloke is also an Endo and after speaking with him previously totally dismisses fT3 readings claiming very few people actually have a conversion issue and giving T3 is a fad which puts more people into toxicosis than not.

I spoke at length with him and he said fT4 is the reading to watch. It is better at the higher end of normal with a TSH under 1.

However, they have stopped giving me fT4 readings too. How come they can pick and choose which blood results to give? A Dr or Endo doesn't ask for these results for the good of their health.

[gabkad in reply to DaizeeFoo]

DaizeeFoo, do you eat red meat? Or liver? Liver especially contains heme iron which is much easier for the body to absorb than the iron supps. There are iron supps that are heme based but they are very expensive. Liver is cheap.

Liver also contains all the B vitamins and folate. Back in the pre-menopause days I'd go on a liver binge every month. I'd eat at least 1 pound over the course of a week-end. My ferritin was low (although hemoglobin was not) and this boosted things quickly.