Should I take medication before thyroid blood test?

[Hawkwind]

Hi I have been advised not to take my normal dose of levothyroxine before my thyroid blood test tomorrow morning as well as my other medication.

However I am worried that if I don't take my sodium valproate, venlafaxine, oestrogen HRT or fenofibrate beforehand then it will not show on the test if they affect my thyroid in any way, because I have read that they do. Can anybody advise me what I should do?

Many thanks.

[Ruthi]

No, don't take your medication. It shows up in the blood and lulls the doctors into a false sense of security.

I don't know if you need to eat with the other meds, but ideally you would fast before the test, and have it as early as possible, and BEFORE taking your thyroxine.

[Hawkwind in reply to Ruthi]

Thank you very much Ruthi, I will follow your advice.

[bossbird]

Definitely not you will get a false reading even if you have to leave meds off for most of the day

[Clutter]

Hawkwind, take Levothyroxine after the blood draw. I don't see why you shouldn't take your other medications as normal. It's Levothyroxine taken before the blood draw which may skew results by giving a false high FT4.

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I am not a medical professional and this information is not intended to be a substitute for medical guidance from your own doctor. Please check with your personal physician before applying any of these suggestions.

[galathea]

Yes, only your thyroid meds need leaving off. Hopefully you dont normally take the thyroid meds alongside everything else do you? Really you need thyroid meds on their own, 4 hours away from everything else and with a glass of water, on an empty stomach.

g x

[Glynisrose]

Blood tests only measure what's in your blood, not whether it works. DON'T take thyroxine before a blood test!!

[judimartini]

You take oestrogen HRT? Oestrogen directly interferes with thyroid function. I can't quite believe the oestrogen industry is still able to sell oestrogen HRT after all the lies and fraud.

I recommend you read The Rise and Fall of Estrogen Therapy by Carla Rothenberg dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to judimartini]

Some people really are oestrogen deficient. I am, and had really bad vaginal atrophy and incontinence because of it - at 49. Of course, horse pee isn't the way to get oestrogen: I'd always suggest bioidenticals, but fake progesterone is even worse for the health.

[judimartini in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

I am not denying your symptoms and I can see why supplemental oestrogen would appear to help. But oestrogen deficiency is just another myth that helps the oestrogen industry sell the stuff. It's a bit like saying..... Some people are arsenic deficient.

Taking oestrogen will give you osteoporosis and cancer, just to name a couple of diseases. The best source I've found to understand oestrogen, is Ray Peat (PhD in biology). He has plenty of free articles online and isn't selling anything.

Good luck.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to judimartini]

Well, I did have DCIS and now it seems that I don't. I don't have osteoporosis, and I'm no longer suicidal and can manage to work, which I couldn't before taking bioidentical hormones. So I think I'll go along with what my endo says. At least some of the money is going to a doctor and a compounding pharmacy in England rather than big pharma. I know how I felt before and how many other things I tried for nearly 7 years, and how I feel now. I'd rather have a short functional life than a longer, miserable one.

Of course, the amount of estrogen I take is about 1/50 of the amount of progesterone and 1/6 of the DHEA.