Finally got diagnosed as Hypo

It's been a long journey and after a six week trial of Levothyroxine, my last blood test showed that I had got worse not better based purely on TSH levels. My results before the Levothyroxine trial was 6.45 and after had risen slightly to 6.85.

It was so refreshing to hear my GP say this proves that you are hypothyroid and we need to start to increase your medication. He has doubled my dosage to 50MG and I have another blood test in six to eight weeks to increase it further if needed.

One thing that did throw me was his insistence that the aim is to get my TSH level down to 2.....

Anyway I am just happy that he is prepared to treat me now.

Chris

[Clutter]

Good news, Chris apart from the comment about TSH of 2 which is too high. That's a future battle though 'cos 50mcg isn't likely to bring down your TSH that much.

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Dr A Toft, consultant physician and endocrinologist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, has recently written in Pulse Magazine, "The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range - 0.2-0.5mU/l.

In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l. Most patients will feel well in that circumstance.

But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l.

This 'exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism' is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l)."