Hypo thyroid function and new results

[tinsi]

Hello all,

I (w,27) have a hypo thyroid function for many years now and always took levothyroxine 125.

Now I had a blood test done with my new GP (I moved to another city) and he said that I need to reduce the strength that I took for so many years.

I'm now a bit confused and sceptical, as I know that many GPs don't know enough about it.

Here are the results he gave me:

fT4: 25.9 (12 - 22)

fT3: 5.4 (3.1 - 6.8)

TSH: 0.01 (0.3 - 4.2)

Note: Approx. one year ago I stopped taking the oral contraceptive pill. Apparently that can affect it. Now I do have some symptoms like feeling very cold, feeling tired, low mood, sadness..

1) Are the figures in brackets the normals figures? Are they correct?

2) Is the GP correct that I should reduce the strength of the hormones?

Thanks a lot for your help everyone,

Tina

[shaws Administrator]

Doctor's should not reduce your medication if he is only going by your TSH. Some think wrongly that a low or suppressed TSH equals a heart attack. Reducing can cause you more problems, in fact ask him to add 20mcg T3 if he reduces your levo by 50mcg. As advised by Dr Toft in an article in Pulse Online.

Email [e-mail] and ask for a copy of this article and discuss with your GP. If you are having symptoms i.e. cold etc I think you need an increase.

It's good you have given the ranges as labs differ. Did you take levo on the morning of your blood test? That can make a difference to the blood tests. Yours look quite good to me, but the main question is 'how the patient feels'.

Excerpt from Thyroiduk.org

Taken from Medicine International 1993

"The aim of thyroxine replacement therapy is to normalise plasma TSH and to achieve a clinically euthyroid state. To obtain this, FT4 and TT4 have to be maintained at, or just above, the upper reference interval".

NB: Dr. Toft, Consultant Physician, states in the British Thyroid Foundation newsletter Issue No. 23 that normal ranges are: T4 (10 – 25) and TSH (0.15 – 3.5). He also states that "the correct dose is that which restores good health; in most patients this will be associated with a level of T4 in the blood towards the upper part of the normal range or even slightly high and a TSH level in the blood which is in the lower part of the normal range.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Read the second question on this link.

web.archive.org/web/2010103...