Iron and blood tests

[Ratkinson]

Hi, I am on levothyroxine75 mg as I had my pituitary removed 17 yrs ago and have managed quite well until recently. I think from my symptoms I may be hypo but at my last endo apt the consultant only measured my free T4 and TSH , my TSH was obviously non existent and the FreeT4 was sat nicely in the mid range.

She was a very nice doctor, spent a good 5 mins telling me all about her mums recent illness and another 5 in how she was trying to become a GP. My proper consultation about 1 min extended to comments that my skin was dry and I looked puffy. Not quite sure where to go from here, I am thinking of going to my GP and asking him to do the T3 etc or send away privately. I am taking iron at the moment for low ferritin (11 )and iron (9 ), both below normal range. Do I need to stop this before testing?

Thanks

Rachel

[Clutter]

Hi Ratkinson,

Most people will be comfortable with FT4 in the upper quadrant of range. Ask you GP to increase dose reminding him/her that it's useless to test your TSH. You can certainly ask your GP to test FT3 but s/he may not be able to do so as a lot of primary care no longer tests FT3 but it's possible the lab will be concerned about non-existent TSH and will automatically test FT3 to rule out hyperthyroidism. If not, you can order private thyroid tests from Blue Horizon and Genova via thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Don't take Levothyroxine dose until after your blood draw but there's no need to stop supplementing iron as iron won't impact on your thyroid test. Remember to take iron 4 hours away from Levothyroxine.

[Ratkinson in reply to Clutter]

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated

Rachel