I've been battling hypothyroidism for around a year, and after today's blood test results it seems that my levels have finally settled on 100 levo. I can't say I'm feeling the effects one feels when undiagnosed (the complete inability/motivation to get out of bed), but they're still there and I'm definitely not the person i was pre-condition.
I've been attempting to educate myself as much as possible and have been reading about T3 conversion, dessicated thyroid and armour thyroid. In short, has anybody else been in a similar position to myself and what was their next step? I'm apprehensive to approach my GP about it, as he can be stereotypical snarky and condescending when I "blame everything on my thyroid".
Having said that, I am apprehensive to stop taking my prescribed levo which has at least done something for me, in order to self-medicate and predict T3 levels.
As you may have guessed I'm currently feeling like a crazy person attempting to get my life back on track but I don't really know where the best place to start is, any advice/personal experiences are welcome!
Cheers
Matt
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mattioso
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Welcome Matt. What are the new levels your GP thinks are OK? Can you post with ranges? And do you know what your results are for other things - ferritin, B12, D, etc? Did the GP order a set of tests when you first went in with symptoms, and was anything there at the top or bottom of the range but within the range?
I've just had an appt with my delightful GP, she really wants to help, but it was quite clear that GPs really don't even have the time to read through blood results. The time pressure is such that they just look at what is flagged up. So we have to do that work ourselves, educate ourselves, read the NHS guidelines etc, so we can draw their attention to the full picture.
Funnily enough I've just gotten off the phone with the surgery chasing up a copy of the results, with any luck I should have them tomorrow to have a look for any abnormalities. I'll be sure to post them here too for advice from those who have been at this much longer than I.
I'm glad to hear your GP appointments are going well. I do feel bad for the GP's workload, its just easy to feel slightly let down by the system with a condition that dominates your life isn't it
My first guess would be that your GP may have just got your TSH level within range and left it at that. If treatment has been dictated solely by TSH it leaves many of us sick. You need to know levels of TSH, FT4, FT3, TPO antibodies, and Tg antibodies to get a full picture. If you have positive antibodies (one or the other or both) this tells you that you have Hashimoto's Disease/ autoimmune hypothyroidism (90% of people in the UK with hypothyroidism have this form of it). There are things you can do to help slow the progress of the disease so it is helpful to know if your condition is autoimmune.
It would be nice to have a reverse T3 level but the NHS don't measure this so it would have to be paid for privately.
For future info - Armour Thyroid is one brand among several Natural Dessicated Thyroid products. It is the most expensive one there is, and if people end up buying their own, many people do well on the much cheaper products from Thailand (Thyroid-S and Thiroyd).
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