Test results

[Janey130]

Hello

I am off to see endocrinologist in the morning and I have just had another blood test prior to this ! I stopped taking thyroxine before Christmas and began just using T3 ... I was a little worried at first then started to feel amazing ... however nearing the end of Jan I was feeling tired and listless maybe because I was sickening with a flu bug 😔 Anyhow or not taking enough T3 ... my T3 isn't near the upper end of range but my tsh is very suppressed ....

Test results

Ft3 4.2. ( 3.8 -6 )

Tsh 0.066. ( 0.30 - 2.60 )

T 4 has been reported as low and I don't have numbers which I will get tomorrow !

Just wondered if any one had any thoughts ?

Thank you

[galathea]

Room for an increase in t3 if you like. Your free t3 has plenty of margin and your tsh is three times higher than mine! ( 0.02 for the past 15 years)

The endo will probably mutter dark warnings of. Heart and bone problems, but will be unable to produce any evidence..... You on the other hand can give him this......

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/825... Its a paper. which says that supressed tsh doesnt equal osteoporosis.

And this... drdach.com/Thyroid_Hunt_Stu.... Which says thyroid meds help your heart.

Xx. G

[thyr01d in reply to galathea]

Hi galathea, and please excuse me Janey for replying to galathea's post.

The article you have quoted about suppressed TSH and osteoporosis concerns me a bit. Having been suppressed I have osteopoenia but not in my arms at all, spine and somewhere else. I'm just a bit worried that whoever ran that study did not check the whole skeleton for osteopoenia/porosis.

If it wasn't peer reviewed and approved I'd be rather cautious.

[Jazzw]

The thing to remember - and don't be surprised if your doctor is hazy on this - is that TSH is not a thyroid hormone. The thyroid doesn't make it. The pituitary gland in your brain responds to the level of T3 in your blood. In a normal healthy person, it prompts your thyroid to make T4 and a much smaller amount of T3 to keep you at a nice stable level.

In your case, your pituitary gland is sensing the T3 in your blood but is a bit confused and doesn't quite understand it isn't enough (it's used to monitoring T3 and T4 levels). So it's not sending a signal to your thyroid to make T4 (that signal being thyroid stimulating hormone - TSH). And if there's no signal, then the level of TSH will be virtually nothing - as it is in your case. And as no signal is being sent, you're not producing any T4 either. So I'd expect that FT4 number to be quite low when you get it.

As galathea says, don't listen to dark warnings of osteoporosis and heart problems. Your FT3 is not over-range - you aren't overmedicated. You're actually undermedicated and could use a small increase in T3. How much are you taking at the moment?

[Janey130 in reply to Jazzw]

Knocked it down to just 25mg a day at the mo ....

[galathea in reply to Janey130]

On what grounds? What arguments did the endo come up with?

X

[Janey130]

Endo was a very rude and uninterested man ! Basically told me all the reasons I shouldn't be taking T3 and ignored all the positives that I told him since taking it ! I don't take as many pain killers anymore . Fluid retention has disappeared not waking up feeling poisoned in mornings no constipation clearer thinking just to name a few 🤔 All he said was he wouldn't prescribe as there is a blanket ban on it purely to do with the cost !! He also told me he is aware people are buying from abroad ... but couldn't be seen to recommend that to me ! What a waste of a morning 😋