Please help

[serkaddis]

I am fed up with everything. My lab result came and TSH 20.8 T3 1.96 T4 71.3. My Endo increased my dosage to 100mcg per day from 5 days a week. what does my result mean? I am so fed up since I am struggling with night sweat & hot flush. Could somebody rescue me?

[humanbean]

So before your increase to 100mcg per day, were you only taking 100mcg 5 days a week? Or did you take a lower dose on the other two days a week?

[serkaddis in reply to humanbean]

Thanks for your response. No, I was taking nothing on the other two days.

[humanbean in reply to serkaddis]

Okay, so previously you were taking 500mcg per week, which averages out to 71mcg Levo per day, and now you are taking 100mcg per day.

That is a reasonable increase. But you still have a long way to go. Increasing your Levo should lower your TSH, but most of us don't feel well until TSH is 1 or less.

The fact that you said your TSH was 11.8 in your very first post and now it is higher means that you are still very under-medicated. It isn't uncommon for TSH to rise in the early days of treatment. It just means your dose is way too low.

It looks as if you were started on too high a dose for you to tolerate to begin with, and having to lower dose then raise it again later has wasted time.

In an ideal world you would have been started on 50mcg, then been tested 5 - 6 weeks later, then had another 25mcg added, then tested again 5 - 6 weeks later, then had a 25mcg increase, and kept on repeating that cycle until your TSH was 1 or below, your Free T4 and Free T3 were in a healthy place in the range and your symptoms were resolved.

If you've been hypothyroid a long time before diagnosis it can make treatment hard to tolerate to begin with, which is why meds are increased in 25mcg lumps, several weeks apart.

If you haven't already got an appointment booked for your next blood test, make sure you arrange it well in advance. You may have to have a phone consultation with your GP to get his approval for the test. Tell him that your last test result showed a TSH of over 20.

Also ask if you can have blood tests for ferritin/iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and folate.

Make sure that after each test you have you get your results and reference ranges, and then make a phone appointment to see your GP to arrange the next tests. Appointments take so long to make these days that planning ahead is essential.

[serkaddis in reply to humanbean]

Thanks Humanbean, you have explained everything that I have doubted. I will check my numbers after one month since I have an appointment for August 28, 2017. Thanks again