don't understand my reading.

[juliaash]

Hi all, I have had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis for about 9 yrs, and taking 125mg of Levothyroxine daily. Last yr i became very ill, to the point i thought i might die.I was knocked off my feet for 5 month's, My DR just kept saying it was my thyroid causing the illness...In june this yr, i was sent to see a Endocrinologist. He look at all the results from my monthly blood tests and said...we do need to be mindful of long standing supressed tsh level, my last bloods were done may this yr and the results came back being....TSH 0.08....T4 15.5....T3 3.2.....I don't understand these reading at all, i haven't had any more bloods done because i have to go back to see the Endo in Dec and have to have bloods done 2 weeks before i go...MY Dr is as baffled as i am to what the Endo said......Does anyone know what readings have to be for your Thyroid to be normal....I have gained over a stone in weight with in 4 months and am fatigued all the time ..If you got to the bottom of my book, thank you for reading and any answers will be very welcome...

[diogenes Remembering]

There are no hard and fast numbers that define "normality". Each person is an individual with unique setpoints when well, and react differently and individually to a given treatment dose. However there are general rules. The values that should be looked for in treatment are completely different from those in health. Without treatment, TSH is useful in diagnosing hypo or hyper states. On treatment TSH is no longer an issue, so long as FT4 and especially FT3 are well into the normal range. Your values are not. FT3 needs to be at least 5.5-6 (if normal range is 3.5-7.5 say), and enough T4 should be taken to get that sort of figure (FT4 may then be above its normal range but that doesn't matter either).

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

we do need to be mindful of long standing supressed tsh level

Oh dear, I am doomed

I have kept a spreadsheet of all my results since 1995 and in all that time my TSH has been suppressed (down to 0.005 on a couple of occasions) except for two occasions - once it was 0.39 (0.27-4.2) with an undetectable FT4 and a FT3 of 2 (2.8-7.1) so that wasn't good! And the other time it was 0.4 (0.27-4.2) with a very low FT4 and FT3 was 2.8 (2.8-7.1). Needless to say, I was a zombie with those results, so b*ggar what they say about suppressed TSH I'm happy for mine to be suppressed with free Ts within range, at least that way I can stand upright and move!