New Labs and still no FT3:

[misscliocat]

Hey all...

I've been on this alternating dose of 137/150 for three months now and had labs again:

TSH: .43 range .35 - 5.5

FT4: 1.3. range .8 - 1.8

FT3: 2.4. Range 2.3 - 4.2

My TSH fluctuates per every blood draw, so I don't even pay attention to that... it was at 2.0 when on almost 20 mcg more of T4...

My sleep as we know, it's disappeared with my thyroid and I thought reducing meds would help. Instead, I feel less anxious and I'm more lethargic and I want to nap more often but don't because I wake up like I was hit by a ton of bricks.

I'm guessing the lower FT4 aids anxiety but that FT3? Is this common?? I find my fingers go tingly when raised (like when reading a book in bed) and my eyes ache from exhaustion and I'm guessing this is due to the lack of T3 hormone? Adding T3 doesn't seem to help as much and I'm open to Armour again but am quite nervous and bluntly, scared.... But any thoughts on what can work now? Raise my medicine? That FT3 stays to plateau, no matter what I'm on... :/

[Heloise]

Hi misscliocat, Your FT3 is pitiful to put it bluntly Are you saying you were on Armour and will try again. Armour is the 100 year old thyroid hormone used by millions of people without incident so why are you nervous? It sounds as if you also tried T3...was that a failure? I'm thinking that your T3 receptors are blocked. Do you know if you have TPO antibodies? Your FT4 is fair so your FT3 wouldn't be that low unless you were not converting well. Adding T3 should have helped somewhat.

You know that low ferritin could be a problem but so can low cortisol when it comes to using T3.

From STTM:

To the contrary, millions of thyroid patients from the past 50+ years have noted and/or reported on the following while on T4-only:

Unresolved or accumulating problems like depression, adrenal stress, anxiety, easy weight gain, difficulty losing weight, easy fatigue, poor stamina, easy sickness/slow recovery, joint pain, painful feet, hair loss, dry skin, rising cholesterol, rising blood pressure, heart problems, kidney problems, other mental health issues, and hundreds more as reported here.

A poor conversion of T4 to T3 due to a myriad of real biological and normal life events which can negatively affect that deiodinase conversion of T4 to T3, such as aging, the normal stress of life circumstances, inflammation, low iron, and just plain bad genetics, to name a few. The body is not meant to live for conversion alone!

Lousy outcomes from being held hostage to the dubious “normal TSH lab range” are rampant. The TSH is a pituitary hormone and can never discern if all our tissues and organs are getting enough thyroid hormone from conversion alone.

[misscliocat in reply to Heloise]

Gosh, I wish there were better protocols prior to a thyroidectomy.... docs said it would be easier to manage with no thyroid, but nope, this has been utter hell!

I was on Naturthroid for a while a few mo the following my surgery... I loved how alive I felt but found the T4 too low and the T3 too high; adding in small synthetic t4 was not a good idea...

I've been on too my supplements and nothing adds up... I've added in Cytomel and I feel better with it, but th crash is hard and it's hard finding what amount of T4 to pair it with... but 2.5 years of missing out and feeling bloated and just irritability and my gosh, the FATIGUE. I was unstoppable and I feel like I lost myself the day they took out my thyroid. I'd love to give synthetic one more solid go because the thought of having to play with doses for the rest of my life drives me to uber sadness, so I guess I'm at a loss as to which way to go... but that FT3, its lousy! And always seems to be like just a whole number above my FT4 regardless. Just frustrating!

[Heloise in reply to misscliocat]

I just read some past posts, missclio. I'm sorry I didn't realize you had thyroid cancer. I like the other posts in this thread. It must be your low ferritin causing the problem but I wonder if you should try another form of T3 as well, perhaps Uni-Pharma instead of cytomel although I took cynomel for two years and did well. Have you revealed your ferritin number? If it is under 70, it shows as a big problem especially if you are on T4. One of the experts in the Thyroid Secret series said it was impossible to raise her ferritin level until she added manganese. I've never heard this before but we know that deficiencies are a huge problem while hypothyroid and especially minerals.

So low ferritin will end up stressing your adrenals which ends up causing them to compensate for lack of T3. They put out adrenaline or epinephrene and cortisol. That might be causing the sleep problem.

I see Clutter had mentioned doubling your iron supplement. You really need to work on that.

[misscliocat in reply to Heloise]

Thank you!!! Yes, I've been taking clutter's advise diligently... my ferritin doesn't budge.... it's like, flat line but I don't know how to raise it... my naturo said that some people just can't get it up no matter what... even with straight ferritin supplements... I'm down for taking t3 more but unsure of how much to supplement.... gosh, what I wouldn't do to have my thyroid back, for sure!

[Heloise in reply to misscliocat]

Iron is difficult, maybe you should try manganese for a few weeks. Often you need some synergistic additions for something to work well. When there are a lot of obstacles, you could try straight T3 but you are probably afraid to since you've had problems but those problems could be due to the T4 turning into reverse t3 but I know I am biased. Dr. John Lowe only took T3 and recommended it highly. Shaws often quotes him and reading his articles might be a good idea as he was very bright.

It actually makes sense to take more T3 than T4 since your iron levels are too low for conversion. Some women said that eating liver was better than a pill. You might end up needing 40 to 60 mcgs. of T3 but some take a lot more. You could do it on a temporary basis and see what happens.

[misscliocat in reply to Heloise]

Thank you again!!!

yes, I'm far too scared to do T3 alone, but I would be ok with adding in a lot more T3.... so we'll see... since I've reduced my mid section has become so thick and I've never looked like this; I'm so discouraged. I'll keep searching and I appreciate you all for your help.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Get your vitamin D, folate, B12 & ferritin checked.

You say in previous post that you have Hashimoto's. Is that high TPO antibodies. Have you had both TPO & TG antibodies rechecked since and are you gluten free?

Avoiding all soya is good idea too. And selenium supplements to help improve conversion and vitamin C to support adrenals.

Do you have any gut issues, or take any ant-acids or other medications that might interfere with thyroid hormones

[misscliocat in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you for your response! TPO is under the radar... b-12 is usually high and I take methyl folate for the past few years due to MTHFR gene... ferritin is low and has been I think since the day I was born... I take iron and also supplement with other sources and complement with vitamin c... everything checks out. I've seen every doc and naturopath but nobody seems to get to the cause... they say just go to NDT but I'm not confident doing that again yet.... just wondering if I'm some freak that needs a lot more of something?

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to misscliocat]

Vitamin D is very important, plus magnesium too. If you take B12 then B complex is recommended too to keep B's in balance

But if taking any B complex with biotin in, stop 4-5 days prior to blood test as it can falsely affect TSH results