Just seen online, Leeds and Bradford are changing referance ranges for Thyroid testing and some others so they conform across the UK.
I'm really posting in case others don't know.
Mind you, I've only used this site a little so far so this may be very old news !
Thanks Micro - I've not seen it - but apparently each authority do change after a few years but I've not seen a link - have you got one? (just copy & paste)
Sorry, forgot that bit, must sleep..it was a Leeds Bradford pathology newsletter, maybe a photo of a photocopy. Just can't remember how I found it ! Good luck !
Sparerib, this is one link but it is from 2011. PR
pathology.leedsth.nhs.uk/pa...
Pity they haven't quoted a FT3 range only a TT3! Plus they have lowered the ranges of FT4 which would mean more would be over medicated.
By thyroid testing, do you just mean the TSH? If so, I hope they're lowering it!
They will miss even
more cases of Addison's Disease ( Related to Thyroid problems then ) As Sodium range low level is reducing to 133 from 135 .
Your mention of harmonised pathology ranges is of great interest. I managed to find an old newsletter (from 2011) which seemed to be spot on, but the rest of the UK most certainly has NOT harmonised ranges in the fours years since then. 
BioProfile
Newssheet of the Leeds & Bradford Pathology Service
August 2011
BioProfile is edited by Julian H Barth, Consultant in Chemical Pathology & Metabolic Medicine
Changes in blood test results
Over the next few weeks, you will see some changes in the reference ranges to some routine blood tests. This is part of a national initiative to standardise ranges and units across the UK to improve patient safety and is in preparation for the electronic patient record. See:
acb.org.uk/docs/Pathology%2...
[ Above link no longer seems to function. Left in purely for reference. ]
<….>
Thyroid function test reference ranges
We are also changing our reference ranges for thyroid function tests following an in-house evaluation of patient samples. Our methods for all thyroid function tests remain the same. New reference ranges for thyroid function tests
Current New
Free thyroxine (fT4): 10-25 10-20 pmol/L
Total tri-iodothyronine (TT3): 1.0-2.5 0.9-2.5 nmol/L
Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH): 0.2-6.0 0.2-4.0 miu/L
pathology.leedsth.nhs.uk/pa...
The newer Pathology Harmony site is here:
Nothing of any interest is accessible there – and it has not been updated for several years.
I wonder how many of the reference ranges are developed with thyroid patients included. The more we have under-treated (and un-diagnosed) hypothyroid people included in reference ranges, the lower the ranges will become - and the more hypothyroid people we will have classified as "normal". In my view, treatment of hypothyroid patients is getting worse and worse. My blood tests used to just fit into the ranges, now my T4 is always above the top, ( because of the altered range) and I have an ongoing fight with a series of doctors. It's becoming a way of life, but for now, at least, I'm digging my heels in and refusing to drop my dose. I just hope I can continue to get away with this!!! Has anyone heard a rational explanation for why levels of thyroid hormone in normal people would be getting lower? I can't imagine that a rational explanation (other than my theory above) is possible.
I agree - my area changed in 2009/10 - and it lowered the FT4 so that while I was starting to look like I'd go outside it (as I was at 10 on 10-25), suddenly I was well into it.
This also meant, like you said, that my mum suddenly was having her dose of levoT reduced as the lowered range meant she looked hyper suddenly! She clearly was not hyper - in fact she was still hypo.
I hope your mum didn't agree to drop the dose. I refused several times, and finally agreed to a temporary trial to shut them up. It made me hypo and I had to reduce my activities etc.. That kept my blood tests the same and the GP wanted to drop the dose further!! I told her we could keep doing that until I became bed-bound and then dead, but I couldn't agree to that. So I told her I would carry on with my normal dose and a relatively normal life rather than let her kill me. I then changed to a new surgery and the hassles start again - but I have 16 GPs to try out!! I won't give in as long as my brain still works!!! (Although at 61 yrs old, I now worry about what will happen in 20 years time when I may have been worn down/out!!) We must hold our ground!
She did (twice!). I think she felt forced. I had felt for some time that I was watching her dying before me, and that was prior to the dosage decreases (!). So I got her on NDT.
T4 only was not working for her in the NHS dosages - she was still extremely symptomatic. She's transformed since being on NDT.
I don't trust the NHS with regards hormones- the GP I was seeing some years ago admitted to me that she really didn't understand hormones (and thyroid treatment) well... I guess at least she admitted it, but what hope for her patients?
You're right - it's scary. My original GP said it was outside her area of expertise when I tried to discuss my thyroid levels with her. I asked her why she felt free to tinker with my treatment for a condition she didn't understand, but she had no good answer for that. GPs seem to think that the treatment is simple even though the condition is complex and they don't understand it. Unethical I think! I did suggest that if they're just reacting to numbers in a robotic way, then a GP wasn't needed to treat the condition, and the cleaning lady could do the job just as well as she could. No answer to that either! The only good that came out of it was that she finally referred me to an endocrinologist. He also wants me to drop the dose, but he's trying to work with me rather than against, and I'm working on educating him. At my last appointment I gave him a research paper to read: thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/TUK_PD...
He has promised to read it and let me know his views. fingers crossed!!!
Good luck with the endo! I hope he changes his mind. Fingers crossed!!!!
"Patient UK" Are they OK?
Test results are in 
A proper test UK
Are RT3 and DI02 test really necessary for me, as the practitioner suggests? 
