Hi, after 2 years of symptoms I stumbled across this forum and have been reading these posts and the recommended books, leading me to believe I have Hypothyroidism, so I paid for blood tests last week as my GP would only send me for TSH. The results all fall within range though - is it likely that I've just got something with very similar symptoms to hypothyroidism?
TSH - 2.08mIU/L (0.27-4.0)
T4 - 15.9pmol/l (12.0-22.0)
T3 - 5.0pmol/L (3.1-6.8)
Antibodies - 9.8IU/ml (0-34)
Ferritin - 159ug/L (13-150)
Vit D - 47nmol/L (50-200)
B12 - 88pmol/L (25.1-165.0)
Folate - 13.7ug/L (4.6-18.7)
Symptoms:
Extreme fatigue, 60% of the time I'm too exhausted to even get out of bed to get food.
Pain in hips and ribs
Hair loss
Weight gain and really hard to shift it
Confusion/memory loss
Really bad at temperature adaptation
Complete loss of libido
I'd really appreciate your thoughts
Written by
tejsmith
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Doctors nowadays don't know the clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism, which they used to be trained in when medical students before the '60s when blood tests and levothyroxine were introduced. This has turned upside down the skill doctors used to have in diagnosing to just looking on a computer screen and diagnosing the patient by the TSH alone and telling patient, it's not your thyroid gland or giving them medication for the symptom (other than thyroid hormones).
Some links and if you can afford a private consultation, email louise.warvill@thryoiduk.org for a list of sympathetic doctors.
Your thyroid results are 'in range', but nowhere near optimal. I certainly started to have symptoms when my TSH reached 2. In range (which doctors often translate as normal) just means that 95% of patients tested by that lab were in that range - but it doesn't mean they were healthy!
Your Vitamin D is below range. This is not good!
Your B12 is low too. According to the PA society website anything under 111 indicates deficiency and under 89 you are likely to have neurological damage. (There is a Pernicious Anaemia group here on HU and they deal with everyone with low B12, whether or not they have classical PA)
Hi, thank you for your response. My Vitamin D was discovered to be about half of what it is currently 2 years ago and treated and despite constant requests to get it rechecked recently, my GP thought it was a one off and it couldn't possibly have dropped again! D'oh! I'll have a look at the PA group, thank you for the suggestion. I am in the UK, yes.
OK, you need to look at the Magnesium Advocacy group on Facebook too. Guy there reckons that if you get your magnesium optimal then D will come up naturally (although maybe not in an English winter!!!). And apparently just adding D isn't so good - I haven't fully understood what he is saying yet. Certainly Mag deficiency is extremely common, and I *think* its the mag supplements that are helping me feel a bit more human of late.
I think you may have gotten you FT4 and FT3 the wrong way round. My GP was keen to treat me on a TSH of 5 and she highlighted my FT4 was far too low at 13, and yours at 15 isn't far off that. I had to print off the list of symptoms from Thyroid UK to take in to my GP, because from my experience they just don't know them. You may have to do this too.
You have to build a case for yourself unfortunately. I think most doctors have problems diagnosing and just tend to treat a symptom they're familiar with. Yes, I'm very disillusioned!!
I took my early morning temps for 5 days, you do this before you get out of bed. I wrote them down to show the doctor, they were all in the 35's. My cholesterol had gone high for no reason, another link to being hypo they don't seem to know about. Also I took a photo of me before I swelled up. It definitely helped. You have to push, push which is annoying when you feel so ill.
You need vitamin D and vitamin B12, you can start that by yourself. I take 3000IU vitamin D (75mcg) and twice a day 1000mcg vitamin B12 under the tongue (pills often don't absorb well in the stonach).
My vitamin D has gone up from 30 to 75 with 2000IU so that's why I'm taking 1000IU extra. Want it to be at 100.
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