Hi, I am new here and this is my first post. My 14 year old daughter has just received her blood results. Her TSH is 11, and her T4 is 11. She started menstruation at 11 years of age, but has only had about 2 periods a year, and they have always been extremely light. We went for tests because she had fatigue, puffy eyes and joint pains for 10 days now. Our GP is away, and I'm anxious for a little light on her case of hypothyroidism - all advice and information will be appreciated.
x
With a TSH of 11 your child is hypothyroid. When you give results it's helpful if the ranges can also be given. The reason being that labs have different machines, thus different ranges.
The doctor should have prescribed levothyroxine and the usual starting dose is 50mcg. The symptoms you state are hypo and I'll give you a list of the others which she can tick off.
The aim of thyroid hormone replacement is to bring the TSH down to 1 or lower. Some doctors stop a dose as soon as TSH reaches anywhere in the range but that doesn't always help the patient as symptoms can still exist or get worse if the dose isn't sufficient for their needs.
Female problems are common, as is infertility, miscarriages etc. (although your daughter is too young yet it's best to know what can result).
Blood test for thyroid hormones should always be the earliest possible and don't eat before it although water can be taken. If on levothyroxine the last dose should be the day before and levo taken after the blood test. Levo should be taken first thing with one glass of water and don't eat for about an hour as food can interfere with the uptake. I preferred you can take a bedtime dose as long as you've last eaten about 2 to 2.5 hours previously.
When hypo our pulse and temp are usually low so it can be good to keep an eye on them by keeping a chart. Both should rise to normal when optimum dose. The best way to check the temp is before getting out of bed and put the thermometer underarm for a few minutes. Also if either get too fast its usually too much thyroid hormones and a small reduction on the next dose would help.
Your daughter should also have Vit B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate and thyroid antibodies checked (antibodies would mean the most common thyroid disease called Hashimoto's for short - proper Autoimmune Thyroid Disease. With antibodies sometimes you have too much which make you feel hyper and at other times low. They attack the thyroid gland till you are definitely hypo.
I hope everything goes smoothly as it should do.
Thank you so much for that very informative reply. When I get a copy of the results I'd like to send them to you, and when medication is prescribed, let you know what it is, as confirmation if that's okay. There was an antibody test which was I was told was positive, so it could be Hashimoto's as you suggested.
Make sure the ranges are stated and put them on a new post, then all the members can contribute and give suggestions. I forgot to give you the list of symptoms. First is with antibodies - Autoimmune Thyroid Disease:-
thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
It is a big learning curve when first diagnosed and you might find that it is not as straightforward as we'd like. I shall also link you to another site which has some good info too re overcoming Hashi's (for short). It is the commonest type of thyroid hormone dysfunction.
hypothyroidmom.com/how-auto...
hypothyroidmom.com/how-i-in...
plus there are other topics down the right hand side.
Thank you Shaws. It is really quite scary when one gets the diagnosis without much info, and a ' lets wait and see and test again in a few months' response. It is helpful to be able to read all the literature, as well as other peoples experiences, so thanks for the links. I'll hopefully receive the results a copy of the results tomorrow or the next day, and post them with the ranges. Thanks again
x
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