Recent diagnosis

[vickster500]

Hi im 7 months post partum and juat been diagnosed with hypothyroid. My tsh is 150. Ive been started on 50mcg of levothyroxine 9 days ago. how quickly will it either work or i can go back to ask gp to raise dose. Im supposed to be going back to work and shes only signed me off for 2 weeks had no improvement. I have no idea how im going to cope at work.

[Hidden]

Hello Vickster500

How long is a piece of string?

Sorry to hear you are so unwell. Hopefully when you have enough thyroid hormone in your system to bring your high TSH level down, you will start to feel better.

If you post your thyroid hormone blood test results, together with ranges (numbers in brackets), more knowledgable people will comment and be able to advise you better.

Also have you had your Vit D, Vit B12, ferritin and folate checked as difficiencies in any of these can cause Levothyroxone not to work properly in your body.

You need to be patient and look after yourself. Sometimes it can be a shock for the body to suddenly relieve a hormone it might have been missing for some time.

[vickster500 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your reply. No not had any other bloods taken. I only know what my TSH is 150 (0.4-4) and I know my T4 is high but not sure of figure. Don't think I was told. Guess I'll give it a bit longer then go back to gp and see what she says. Thanks for the reply.

[shaws Administrator in reply to vickster500]

Sorry to hear your news. I doubt you'll be ready in two weeks.

When you go for your next blood test which should be around 6 weeks after first diagnosed (and also every six weeks till you feel better) and have it as early as possible and leave approx 24 between your dose of levo and the blood test as you don't want your blood tests skewed. Take levo afterwards and if you've eaten, leave 2 hours either side of taking levo as food can affect uptake.

Always get a print-out of your blood test results with the ranges for your own records and so that you can post if you have a query. The other blood tests are important as we are usually deficient. Everything has to be towards the upper range (except the TSH).

We have to read and learn and become much more knowledgeable than most of our GPs (very unfortunate) and some Endos.

[vickster500]

Thank you reallyfedip123. Thats really informative. I'll def go back to gp.

[ROMM53]

Hi .just to add that the earliest the GP will retest your thyroid function will be in another 4 and half weeks if you've only been on thyroxine for 9 days. There's no way you'll be fit for work in 2wks if your TSH is 150, in fact I read somewhere that a person shouldn't drive above a certain TSH, and it was well below 150!

Take care of yourself and expect it take some months before feeling slowly better. Make sure the other bloods are done also x

[Heloise]

Hi Vickster, I wonder how you have managed with a new baby and a TSH so high. You must be healthy otherwise especially since you brought a baby to full term? The Levothyroxine is still building up to the 50 mcg. dose. It has a half life of two weeks so you haven't reached a full dose as yet and I think you should feel improvement soon. Some people feel worse before they feel better but I had a noticeable improvement quickly. There are also so many other hormones that I'm wondering if the pregnancy caused some imbalances. I'm not in the medical field but I believe the body can work some things out given time. Maybe these 5 min videos can help to explain how involved the other hormones can be.

youtube.com/watch?v=UMa_8oh...(Not working as expected?)

youtube.com/watch?v=ljRWZ9g...(Not working as expected?)

youtube.com/watch?v=xyW93jv...(Not working as expected?)

[shaws Administrator]

This is also a very useful link:

hypothyroidmom.com/your-pos...

[vickster500]

Thank you everyone you have been very informative and helpful.