Thyroid levels

[sylus_911]

Hi im Sylus911 im new here.I had my thyroid removed 5 years ago,felt so well than 14 months ago my levels changed and i have,nt felt well sinse.Although i was told my tsh levels had gone back to normal 2.4 i,ve recently had a blood test for my t4 and t3 levels, the t4 is high and the t3 is low and my tsh level is now 1.57.I was told that im not converting.I have no idea what all this means can someone please explain to me.

[Scazzoh]

Hi Sylus, sorry you are not well. Could you post the test results with the ranges (the number in brackets), so that you can get accurate advice? T4 being 'high' and t3 being 'low' does not really mean anything.

[sylus_911 in reply to Scazzoh]

Hi t4 level is 20.3 the t3 level is 3.5.I am on 100mcg levothyroxine a day

[JemimahR]

Your body should convert T4 into T3 - T3 is the active hormone. I had this issue when I had my thyroid removed - I couldn't have T4 supplementation alone (Levothyroxine) as my body wouldn't convert it. I trialled combination therapy - T4 and T3, then T3 only but the only thing that worked for me was moving to NDT (which unfortunately most GPs and Endos don't endorse).

[sylus_911 in reply to JemimahR]

What is NDT?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to sylus_911]

NDT stands for Natural Desiccated Thyroid. That is, it is dried, standardised animal thyroid made into tablets.

Most often doctors refer to it as Desiccated Thyroid, Desiccated Thyroid Extract (DTE), or Thyroid USP (though that is actually the powder used to make the tablets, in the USA) or one of the brand names such as Erfa Thyroid, Armour Thyroid, or one of the other makes.

All makes of prescription-quality desiccated thyroid that I know of are from porcine sources. All makes of desiccated thyroid contain similar amounts of T4 and T3 hormones - though they do vary a little.

Some people feel better by taking desiccated thyroid rather than levothyroxine.

(There are several products which are made from dried animal thyroid that do not declare their thyroid hormone content. In general, we do not know how much - if any - thyroid hormone these products contain.)

Many other abbreviations and acronyms can be found in my document created expressly for this forum:

dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...

[sylus_911 in reply to helvella]

Thank you for the info.You must excuse my ignorance ,its only recently i,ve been trying to look into all this.I had my thyroid removed put on thyroxine and as far as i knew that was that.Did,nt know anything about how your levels can change,but i knew it when they did.When i went back to see my consultant and ask him what was t4 and t3 he said they were only numbers.As im learning a bit more about things it seems that there quite important numbers id say.I,ve just been put on antidepressants and anxiety tablets,i know i dont feel well,although some days i dont feel as bad, but other times i feel so awful,can that happen?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to sylus_911]

The whole point of the forum is for us to help each other in whatever ways we can. No-one is born knowing about thyroid medicines and tests and so on! Most of us only come to know what we know due to circumstances forcing us to do so.

People vary all the time. I am probably as stable as anyone here - never became very hypothyroid, still have my own thyroid, am male (which seems to mean fewer problems for many) - and yet even I find myself changing over shorter and longer periods.

I believe I have seen changes in other people over times as short as five minutes.