TSH reading

[sammy007]

Hi good morning I am new here. I have a question and appreciate so much if anyone can advice me . My thyroid test showed TSH as 2.8 . My doctor informed me that my thyroid is normal . After reading some of the posts here I am now wondering if I too have to get my T4s and T3s tested even though my doc tells me my TSH is in the normal range . Should TSH be lower? Should I still do the whole range of tests? Thank you in anticipation 🙂

[jqqhp]

What symptoms do you have?

[sammy007 in reply to jqqhp]

None yet( thank god )but have slightly elevated LDL 6.3 however I am not taking any medication to lower LDL as my doc says I should try lowering it with an appropriate diet exercise and enough sleep etc which I am . However I am not going to be complacent from this day onwards . Am doing the full thyroid asap . Thank you so much everyone .

[greygoose]

A TSH of over two can show that your thyroid is struggling. But, it's not very perspicacious of your doctor to leap to any conclusions on the basis of that! Yes, you should have the Frees tested, if you have symptoms. And antibodies, to get the full picture. But, these tests cost money that he doesn't want to spend.

On the other hand, your TSH could be highish because you have some kind of infection. The intelligent thing to do would be to keep an eye on it, see if it goes back to 'normal', or if it rises.

[sammy007 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you @greygoose . I will from now on . Am going to do the needful and get the 'frees' tested . Too . Thanks so much .

[Hidden in reply to sammy007]

I can only agree with Greygoose who knows a lot about these things! I have read that a healthy individual without latent thyroid disease has a TSH around 1, and that a TSH around 2 or slightly higher (even if still "in range") is a sign in itself that the thyroid is beginning to struggle...I also read somewhere that the so called reference ranges used by labs (ranges differ slightly from lab to lab but most labs and doctors seem to consider a TSH of 4 or even 5 to be in range = no treatment necessary) are based on the average results from X hundreds of thousands of patients, some or even many of whom have latent thyroid disease...which means those reference ranges should be revised downwards. That is pretty interesting, because I have the impression that most hypothyroid patients, when optimally treated (regardless of drug(s) needed to achieve that) have a TSH close to the lower normal limit, or even suppressed (which seems to happen more often than not to patients on T3 or NDT), but few seem to feel well with a TSH close to the upper normal limit...which to me confirms that the current so called reference ranges should be revised.