Butterflyfairy, TSH is low because FT4 is high. Pituitary issues TSH to stimulate the thyroid gland to produce hormone when it detects low circulating hormone and shuts of TSH when it detects sufficient.
Your FT4 is mildly elevated and your GP is right to have told you to continue on the 100mcg dose. Reducing dose would decrease FT4 and FT3 which would probably increase your fatigue. Read Treatment Options in thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
FT3 5.2 is good. FT3 should rise as there is 4.5mcg of T3 in 1/2 grain NDT. If you are considering raising NDT wait 6-8 weeks before having a blood test.
Butterflyfairy, If antibodies have been tested previously your GP may not agree to repeat the test. Some won't test antibodies when they are treating hypothyroidism with Levothyroxine because there is no treatment for Hashimoto's. If antibodies were positive when you were previously tested you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's). Gluten-free diet may help reduce Hashi flares and antibodies.
Butterflyfairy, elevated thyroid peroxidase antibodies determine Hashimoto's, not FT3 level. Ask your GP receptionist for your thyroid peroxidase antibody result and range.
May be ok with the patches, apparently 20% is not utilised ,and 500 is the minimum level in Japan.Folk on this site reckon 900-1000 is right for us with our thyroid problems. So you were not optimal before.I do not know anything about patches.I take Jarrows methylcobalamin tablets.
butterfly, it is unlikely you will feel any better on NDT because your thyroid blood levels on 100 mcg T4 were excellent.
Thalassemia trait, as you know, results in low range hemoglobin, small red blood cells etc. This is where you and your doctor need to focus. Usually there is a limit to how high hemoglobin (oxygen carrying capacity of the blood) can get with thalassemia trait. Also, you can't just take iron unless all the iron panel tests are done and they show you are deficient. Otherwise iron will build up in the tissues and this can result in toxicity.
Get help and good monitoring with the thalassemia.
thank you maybeyou are right I cannot take iron as it would be toxic. I do need to search more into this aspect-as a child I was back and forth to hospital-outpatients due to so many infections after the scalet tina they just concluded that I hat thalaseemia trait. and that my father and sibling were carriers of infections!
so I just had to carry on...into adult hood just so prone for getting flu and always so exhausted!
then all other factors of emotional stress/birth pill/smoking(so stupid!)/being out on road as sales executive (all the fumes from the traffic)/thyroid diagnosed in 1995 then 1997 heptatis B injection-food poisoning in turkey from eating chicken! noticed adrenal fatigue sx's (only in hindsight not at present time) and then boom 1998 year got flu and never recovered! stuck with the label M.E. an american adrenal doctor said I had an adrenal burn out. Dr P put me on Florinef in 1999 and started to feel better. the adrenal rebuilder really helps me. and doing the adrenal test again next week via thyroid UK because I am so stressed in my body that I feel my cortisol is too high.
although I still feel it is cells-wether mitochondra damage or the thalasemma? but i do feel full of toxins that is why I feel so ill...the toxins
such a maze and I dont know if my GP can help further
A former employee had problems with red blood cells as well. We got her tested twice for hemoglobinopathy and both times the test was not conclusive. She had a high red cell count, hypochromic, microcytic, with ovalocytes, very small percentage of fetal hemoglobin, hemoglobin 117 which rose to 124 whie taking iron (which the M.D. okayed based on her negative hemoglobin tests) . But the iron ended up increasing ferritin without making much improvement on the hemoglobin and was stopped. I have no idea what to think. The new M.D. who had a lot more on the ball than her previous one was concerned that there may be some immunological issues. He wanted to check her out for these reasons. I don't think she followed up yet but now she's not working for a while and I'm hoping she gets checked out. She was tired a lot of the time and moving slowly. She could not, for example, run or walk quickly for a prolonged period of time without getting air hunger.
I also encouraged her to eat more quality protein, because blood production depends on protein as well. She got early menopause (age 38) which is not a benefit either. B12 was always excellent due to B complex supplementation. Thyroid function tests were all totally excellent. She's got a rather high HbA1c so borderlining on type 2 diabetes. Some doctors would treat at this level or at least do an OGTT but <shrug>..... I'm not the doctor.
Possibly these conditions get gradually worse as someone is getting older just from the fact that it's chronic and we run out of adaptive reserve.
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