Hello everyone. As you know I'm knew here, so I'll have post something about myself. Can anyone please tell me what these blood test mean, The DR said I was fine, and told me to take the levo at my normal time before the blood draw. On Friday I went (after some excellent comments from members here) and paid for a blood test, I showed him those, and he just literally threw them back at me!!! These are the results with taking the Levo 75mg
TSH 1,01 (0.27-4.20)
FT3 4,2 (3.1-6,8
FT4 14,6 (12-22)
Results below are without taking the Levo, same lab values as above.
TSH 1,17
FT3 4,2
FT4 13,9
I asked for a test for Vit D and he said no! If anyone could give me any insight into these reading, I would really appreciate it. Many thanks, oh I forgot to add, he did actually ask me how was feeling, and I said really tired, so he wants me to have a sleep study done *head in hands*.
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SantaMonica2002
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Looking at the second set of results, your Free T3 is 30% of the way through the reference range and your Free T4 is 19% of the way through the reference range, and neither of these are good results. On this forum, for people on levo, it is suggested that Free T4 should be in the top quarter of the reference range, and Free T3 should be in the top third.
You are under-medicated in my opinion. Neither your Free T4 or your Free T3 are high enough. The problem is that your GP is clearly going to stick to the guidelines no matter how you feel. (You aren't the first patient to have private blood test results thrown back at them.) And with all three numbers being in range you are unlikely to get a raise in your levo.
You have a few choices :
1) Get your ferritin, folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin D tested. If your doctor won't do it then you may have to pay.
Finger prick testing from Blue Horizon is good value for money. See the Thyroid Check Plus Ten. There are discounts available from Thyroid UK on testing costs. See the link I've given and follow the links within it.
Vitamin D testing can be done with City Assays or Betteryou, also with finger-prick testing.
If you have any deficiencies then repairing those may improve your thyroid function test results, and will make you feel better anyway.
Have a look at medichecks as well. No discounts available, but is worth investigating.
I've never used them but some people on the forum have.
2) See a different GP at your surgery and ask for a raise in your levo. I don't know how successful you'll be. Getting prescribed more levo when all results are in range is difficult and probably quite rare. If you still don't get anywhere then you could try changing your GP surgery, but it is a leap in the dark with no guarantees of getting a different result.
3) You could start self-medicating. If you do that then you could just buy some more levo and top up your own dose. Or there are other possibilities - you could add T3 to your levo, or you could try NDT, or you could try T3 alone. This isn't necessarily an easy option and you would need to understand how this all works before you did anything like this.
Edit : I'm not medically trained, so following my suggestions is something you do at your own risk.
I wish I had never shown him my results taken with Levo, and just the ones that i had taken without the levo, then he would have upped the dosage surely? I'm out of range in your opinion then yes? As from what I have l read through thyroid UK my FT3 & FT4 should be higher. He is counting by numbers, and I'm furious. No blood test for another 6 months, that's going some eh?
Your results are in range for both tests. The Free T4 and Free T3 are both too low for many people to feel well though (in my opinion, and I have no medical training, I'm just another hypothyroid person). Your doctor will only be interested in whether or not your results are in range, and most important for him is the TSH.
You will have to decide for yourself how you want to tackle the problem.
Final point : You can't force the doctor to give you more levo. He is following the rules the NHS uses, and there isn't a lot you can do about it, sadly. You will have to help yourself in some way.
I have 50mg here, that I can cut in half and try this, so that would make me on 100mg. I have read a lot about people being their own best advocates it's sad.
It makes very little difference when you take the levothyroxine except if you take it very close to the blood draw when it can produce spurious numbers. As you have the blood taken early morning it would be better to take your levothyroxine after taking the blood. As you can see from the two sets of results your fT4 varied by about five percent which is about right and within the limits of the accuracy of the assay.
On levothyroxine therapy it is recommended to target the TSH higher up, around 18-20 as this usually gives an fT3 around the middle of its interval. However, it is more important to go by signs and symptoms. Your doctor should increase your levothyroxine to at least 100 mcg and see how you go. It would seem that he is under the illusion that once you are within the reference intervals all is fine. I think your doctor lacks a detailed understanding of levothyroxine therapy. A sleep study will demonstrate that you are getting light non-restorative sleep (due to insufficient medication), a waste of time and money.
Thank you for your reply. It was a joke this morning, he really didn't want to know. All he was interested in was the TSH results. He did ask me how I felt, I told him that I'm so tired...falling asleep during the daytime, and then back in bed by 7pm!! ah well sleep study then, is what he said, and not everything is down to your thyroid so stop going on about it. he also said, it's only a hormone you know - get that.....!!
Although it wouldn't surprise me if they recommended tagetting a TSH of 18 or 20 I did indeed mean fT4. Apologies, I was using our iPad and the blinking thing keeps trying to 'correct' what I type. That's my excuse anyway, some might say I was half asleep.
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it's sad.
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