What should I do?

[Sylvia22]

My Doctor asked me to reduce my Levo by 12.5. I didn't want to as I was already tired. Did it anyway And my test result is now T-SHIRT 0.01 and T4 is 19. Previous test showed same TSH but my T4 was 21 They have been telling me all the usual stuff about bones and heart Any advice please

[Sylvia22]

Instead of T-shirt should say TSH

[shaws Administrator]

Ignore them altogether. We are more likely to get heart problems etc by having insufficient hormones.

Put your dose up again, patient knows best not anyone else. Once size doesn't fit all. The dose that makes us well is the right dose. The hormone that makes us well is the right one be it levo, T3 added to T4, NDT.

The TSH is useless - it's only good to inform them for a diagnosis

The following doctor took no thyroid hormone blood tests once patient was diagnosed.

web.archive.org/web/2010103... excerpt:

"Dr. Lowe: First I suggest that you ask your doctor to question the scientific basis of the endocrinologists’ notion of "fine tuning" by TSH and thyroid hormone levels. If he does, he’ll learn that the changes he sees in your TSH and thyroid hormone levels are probably nothing more than natural variations in the levels. He would probably see the same variations if he always kept your thyroid hormone dose the same. I’ll briefly review some of the evidence that your doctor should read.

TSH levels don’t significantly correlate day-to-day[1] or week-to-week.[2] One research group measured the TSH and free T3 and free T4 levels of ten normal young men.[3] When they measured the levels every 30 minutes for 24 hours, they found that the hormone levels were lower during the day and higher at night. During the day, the free T3 was 15% lower, the free T4 was 7% lower, and the TSH was 140% lower. When the researchers measured the hormone levels every five minutes for six to seven hours (7 PM-to-11 PM), the levels varied every thirty minutes. The TSH level varied 13%, the free T3 15%, and the free T4 11%."

another excerpt from another link by the same humane scientist/doctor/logistician:

Underpinning Dr. Lowe's work are his two main intellectual interests: (1) theoretical-deductive science, which enables one to make the best possible sense of study findings in a research field; and (2) symbolic (mathematical) logic, the discipline one uses to determine the validity or invalidity of his own and others' conclusions and arguments.

Dr. Lowe is a devout critical rationalist. This means that he subscribes to the hypothesis (proposed by Sir Karl Popper and articulated by David Miller and others) that the ultimate job of logical, scientific thinkers is to formulate bold hypotheses, and rigorously try to falsify them. The reason for falsifying the hypotheses is to eliminate errors in them and perhaps the entire hypotheses. Free of at least some of their errors, ideas, beliefs, hypotheses, and theories may become more accurate representations of truth, which is correspondence with truth. If eliminating errors makes it obvious that an idea, belief, hypothesis, or theory is entirely false, then we can—having learned from the falsification—replace it with one that is hopefully more accurate.

He is also an active critical analyst. This means that he logically analyzes his own thinking and beliefs and those of others to learn whether or not these are accurate and rational.

In recent years, drug and medical device corporations have largely co-opted medical research, the medical profession and its institutions, medical practice guidelines committees, and the US Congress. These corporations have essentially turned all of these groups, to varying degrees, into marketing tools for the products of the corporations. (I have emboldened this para).

[Glynisrose]

Are you a group of numbers or are you a patient?

[Angel_of_the_North]

The Rotterdam study showed no links between low TSH (caused by thyroid meds) and heart disease or osteporosis

[Sylvia22]

Why don't they know these things