rosetrees

At the very least you need to ask for your iron, ferritin, folate, vit B12 and Vit D levels to be measured along with your thyroid antibodies. Your GP should be able to do all of these. See if you can get them done before your next endo appt and post them all here, along with your latest thyroid results.

shawsAdministrator

Welcome to our forum and I'm sorry you have been badly treated since the age of 22. Now you have to learn that the guidelines the Endocrinologist go by are wrong. The TSH hasn't to be 'in range' - it has to be at the lower part of the range.

thyroid-info.com/articles/s...

Email louise.warvill@thyroiduk.org.uk and ask for a copy of the Pulse Online article by Dr Toft (who was President of the British Thyroid Association). Read and highlight question 6 (but ignore the following para which shows what most believe when dealing with us, mainly women, with thyroid disease.

Excerpt from Pulse article:-

6 What is the correct dose of thyroxine and is there any rationale for adding in tri-iodothyronine?

The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range – 0.2-0.5mU/l.

In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l. Most patients will feel well in that circumstance.

But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l.

This ‘exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism’ is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l).

Even while taking the slightly higher dose of levothyroxine a handful of patients continue to complain that a sense of wellbeing has not been restored. A trial of levothyroxine and tri-iodothyronine is not unreasonable. The dose of levothyroxine should be reduced by 50µg daily and tri iodothyronine in a dose of 10µg (half a tablet) daily added."

Sack your Endo and read and learn as most of us have had to do on this forum. Thankfully I am now well and you will be if you know more than your Endo - which wont take much.

When they drop your dose of levo, it drops the T4 - in turn the low T4 is too low to convert to T3 (the active hormone required in all of our receptor cells - we cannot function without T3 and a Free T3 would tell you this. T4 is inactive.

When you've dropped your dose the TSH rises as it is flagging a dead horse because the patient doesn't have sufficient thyroid hormones to function as well as having clinical symptoms to boot.

Ask your GP to give you a full thyroid function test (he may not) but the ones he doesn't agree to Thyroiduk have recommended labs which you can have a private blood test. Ask for TSH, T4, T3, FT4, FT3, (sometimes labs don't do other than TSH/T4 if TSH is anywhere in range). You get a small discount as does Thyroiduk.org.uk.

Also ask GP to test Vitamin B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate.

Always get the earliest possible blood test and fast (you can drink water). Leave about 24 hours between your last dose of levo and the test and take it afterwards.

hormonerestoration.com/Thyr...