Results help please

[Julesb02]

Hi, im fairly new on here. I've been trying to read and understand how to help my hypothyroidism& hashimotos, despite lack of help from UK doctors. I have continuing symptoms and can only get my Dr to do a few tests at a time, he relies heavily on tsh. I finally persuaded him to test t3 as I feel so bad, and am hoping some of you can help me interpret the results please so when I see him I know what to say! I have read that you should be in top 25% of the range?

TSH 2.1 (up from 1.1 on 21.4.17) range 0.3-4.5

ft3 4.5 (3.1-6.8)

Ft4 15.4 (11-22)

Ferritin up to 25 (was 8 in sept 16) (range 12-250). Still on ferrous sulphate

I appreciate help and suggestions please. Thank you in advance. Just want my life back 😔

[Jazzw]

You need an increase in dose - ideally enough to get your TSH under 1.0 and nearer the very bottom of its range.

If you haven't had a read of this before, have a read: thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/diagno...

Note the bit about Dr Toft recommending that for some patients to feel well they need to have their TSH in the very low part of the range.

Your doctor should be treating you and your symptoms - not the numbers. Unfortunately, many doctors have no idea that they should be aiming for wellness within the range, not just get you there.

[Saggyuk]

Hi there. Yes definitely room for an increase. Leave dose for 24 hours before blood test to help persuade doc of this. So if you take your meds in the morning, do the blood test early the next day and take meds immediately after test instead. It doesn't appear immediately that you have too much of a conversion issue so T4 might work well. Would be worth another T3 test to make sure once levels are up and tsh lower though.

Get your Vit B12, folate and Vit D tested also as we're often deficient in these.

Might be useful to get antibodies tested but doc unlikely to do but you can get them done yourself. If you have positive antibodies and/or stomach issues, it might be well worth trying a gluten free diet for three to six months as this helps many of us. Has to be 100% gluten though including cross contamination.

Stay on iron supplements for another three months and retest. Take these with vit c for higher absorption and to avoid the constipation. If you are having tummy difficulties with ferrous sulphate, you can try ferrous fumerate instead as a little easier on the tum.

Hope you feel better soon

[Heloise]

Hi Jules, your doctor is the reason this website is so necessary. We know that being hypothyroid is fairly complicated to treat correctly but you will have to learn a lot about it yourself. We've had a lot of expert advice from people like Izabella Wentz. I've posted videos by John Bergman and David Clark because they are functional doctors who understand anatomy and the way hormones work together. If you are being treated and your TSH went up, you need an increase of hormone. Your ferritin is needed for the conversion of T4 to T3 and you're right that T4 should be in upper range so your FT3 is also higher.

youtube.com/watch?v=SDphVgA...(Not working as expected?)

[Julesb02]

Thank you all for your very helpful advice and support. Jazzw, your link is very helpful thank you. I'm on 150mg now and he has agreed to increase it to 175 even though my levels are 'normal' - luckily I had the results and your advice to press him for an increase! My antibodies at last test were 504 - he won't test again.

I am taking D3, B12 and selenium to try and help. How long would I need to be off them if the Dr was to test my levels?

I went gluten free at the start of the year, which has helped my "ibs" amazingly, so no going back there!

Saggyuk and Heloise, thank you for the advice on iron - I didn't know it affected conversion or that I should take it with vit C - is that juice or supplements? I will check out the videos too.

Thank you so much, your help is greatly appreciated

[Saggyuk in reply to Julesb02]

That's great that doc will increase thyroid meds. You clearly had a problem with gluten if your IBS has cleared and this can take a while to get completely better so hopefully you will find even more improvements over the next few months. After about six months gluten free, I had to drop my thyroid meds by quite a lot as could absorb more and stomach had healed so keep this in mind if you start to get any weird symptoms that could be hyper

It can be a glass of orange juice or whatever form really. Sometime I just have one of those 1000mcg effervescent vit c tablets to drop into water but we weary of gluten in these as I did react to one of them. Make sure you get a retest for iron though as it's one of the ones where too much can as bad as not enough. Stick to the rda (recommended daily allowance) for selenium also as is another one you don't want to much of.

In regards to Vit D and B12, it depends on the dose? If you just brought the ones from the pharmacy, they're unlikely to do much at all. If they are good high dose ones, then deficiency is unlikely to still show up but would still be useful to test to see where you're at or if absorbing them. I would leave at least two weeks before a test but I'm not sure exactly so someone else might have to answer that one.

[Julesb02]

Saggyuk,

Thank you for your very helpful reply. I will bear that in mind re my meds and gluten.

B12 is 250ug, selenium 200ug and D3 2000iu. Got them from a Bowen practitioner, rather than chemist. Combined they have been helping my pain. That's good to know to leave at least two weeks.

Thank you again for your help, it is much appreciated.

Jules