Help me understand my results

[Jowood77]

Could someone please explain what my results for hypothyroidism mean.. I new to all this

[Clutter]

Jowood, your results mean you are very hypothyroid. Normal TSH is between 1-2 and normal FT4 around 15-17 so you can see your TSH is far too high and your FT4 too low. It will take 7-10 days to absorb Levothyroxine before it starts working and up to six weeks to feel the full impact of the dose before you will feel much improvement in symptoms, and it is likely to take several months to optimise dose.

Take Levothyroxine with water an hour before food and drink, or two hours after. Take it 2 hours away from other medication and supplements, and 4 hours away from iron, calcium, vitamin D and oestogen.

You should have a thyroid blood test six-eight weeks after you start Levothyroxine as dose will require adjustment. Take Levothyroxine after the blood draw.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

Your vitamin D is deficient. How much vitD3 has your GP prescribed?

[Jowood77 in reply to Clutter]

Hi thanks for the reply I'm waiting on a hospital appointment as I have a intolerance to sodium so I can't take levotyhroxine to see if there is another medication I can use

As for the D deficiency It just says a high dose supplement but not received any medication as yet

[Treepie in reply to Jowood77]

I see it was incidentally detected,so not clear whether you had bad symptoms yet .Symptoms would follow without treatment.It may be you will have to try Natural Dessicated Thyroid which is hardly ever prescribed despite being the only treatment for 100 years and is what Hilary Clinton is prescribed.

[Clutter in reply to Jowood77]

Jowood, Liquid Levothyroxine and Martindale compounded Levothyroxine don't have sodium thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

My GP had a wallchart with vitD levels and dose required to calculate the loading and maintenance doses required to correct my vitD deficiency. My sister was prescribed 20,000iu x 2 weekly for vitD 40, so you'll need slightly more.

[cc251254 in reply to Clutter]

Clutter does that mean that my blood results that I have previously shown in my last post are showing that I am HYPO rather than HYPER ? I also have a previous blood test but only showing the TSH (and not FT4), from March showing 2.99 (0.34 - 5.6) ? At my medical centre T4 is only sometimes requested by the GP to be tested.

[Clutter in reply to cc251254]

cc251254, TSH 2.99 is a sign your thyroid is beginning to struggle to produce thyroid hormone but you won't get a hypothyroid diagnosis until TSH is >5.6. If you were hyperthyroid TSH would be very low <0.03.

[LAHs]

Regardless of what happened last March, you are definitely HypO now - and seriously. Regardless too of what your medical centre requests, make sure your doctor orders at least T4, T3 and TSH. If s/he will not do this, go find a doctor who will, or do it privately. And read, read, read up on the function and problems with the thyroid gland. You will save a lot of time if you can have an intelligent conversation with your doc instead of passively waiting for him/her to make the next move - which they may not know.

If it helps, there are many of us out here spending a lot of time looking for a better doctor, I find it a bit embarrassing, but my life depends on it. It took me 2 1/2 years to get a doc who would put me on the right medicine (in my case Armour Thyroid, an NDT) but things are still not perfect, she wants to reduce my dose because my TSH is too low.! I do not give a flying fig about TSH, I want all of the horrible symptoms of hypothyroidism to stay away. This is my next "fight", increase my dose, do not decrease it. So don't be afraid to be assertive, easier said than done, I know.

[cc251254 in reply to LAHs]

I have now had another blood test taken on 25th September and GP rang yesterday to say they need to step in before my appointment with the Endo in November, obviously because the results are not good - picking the print outs up later today. They (GP) have been in touch with the specialist regarding my blood results and regarding what dose of Levy-Thyroxine to put me on until I see him. They rang back this morning and he has recommended 100 micrograms L-Thyroxine along with the 40 mgs of Carbimazole I am currently taking. My only symptoms since ONLY taking Carbimazole have been extreme cold, not being able to sleep and therefore tired - the anxiety, panic, racing pulse and breathlessness have gone ! I have to say that since NOT taking the thyroxine apart from the cold/tiredness I have felt MUCH better without Thyroxine. My dose for the last 15 months was 75 micrograms LT and 40 gms Carbimazole and I did still have the anxiety/breathlessness/panic etc on many occasions. When the GP stopped both meds in July the symptoms were SO BAD I thought I was going to die just like I did prior to being diagnosed and medicated with 40 gms Carbimazole for approx 8 months and then put on Block and Replace with LT and Carbimazole. Your thoughts on that would be much appreciated - sorry if it may seem garbled - I did take a sleeping pill last night as I needed sleep so much and thank you for your previous input, much appreciated.

[LAHs]

This is rather complicated and I am not really qualified to give an opinion, however, I will offer some logic on the subject.

Your SYMPTOMS suggest that you are HypERthyridic while your BLOOD TEST results say pretty clearly that you are very HypOthyridic. (It is usually the other way round - low TSH says Hyper but patients feel Hypo i.e. very ill). Your doctor did the right thing by your symptoms, he prescribed Carbimazole which treats Hyperthyroidism and you felt better, but bloods now strongly suggest Hypo.

It was therefore a very good move to send you to an Endocrinologist (Endo). This will be tricky to fix regardless as to the speciality of the doctor. I think the Endo just wants to rule out some basic problems quickly via the GP so that s/he can study your problem from a wider knowledge base by the time you see him/her.

Don't panic over this recall, I think both doc and Endo are just trying to determine all the facts and details of the problem they are presented with before you are "handed over" to the specialist, the Endo.

Just FYI, most of us with the opposite problem wish that our docs would treat to our symptoms rather than push us into more hypO (by reducing our T4 dose) because our TSH is too low.

Keep us posted, this is an interesting one.