Hi thanks for letting me join. I had a call from my gynae today re my constant heavy and irregular and painful periods. My periods also make me dizzy and off balance and very tired. She did some thyroid bloods and I have had these results come back.
TSH 10.2 (0.2 - 4.2)
FT4 8.3 (12 - 22)
FT3 3.1 (3.1 - 6.8)
She says they strongly suggest hypothyroidism and has asked GP to urgently prescribe me thyroid medication. How long will I notice a difference in my symptoms?
Also my gynae thinks I have autoimmune problems since I have been tested positive for a few autoimmune diseases. Also getting dizzy and lightheaded standing after sitting. She is considering possible Addison's disease as well. Voice goes hoarse sometimes and 3 thyroid ultrasounds out of 4 have confirmed enlargement.
Do I need to ask gynae or GP for anything else please?
Thanks
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lizjp
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At least you have been diagnosed and you should have had a prescription for 50mcg of levothyroxine. Levothyroxine is a synthetic thyroid hormone - also called T4 - and it should convert to T3. It is T3 which is required in all of our T3 receptor cells as T4 is inactive and T3 is Active.
Female problems are common as can infertility and/or miscarriages, so everything has to be optimum. T3 is required in our millions of T3 receptor cells and brain and heart need the most.
Autoimmune Thyroid Disease is diagnosed if you have thyroid antibodies in your blood. It is these antibodies that attack your thyroid gland until you are hypothyroid. It is also commonly called Hashimoto's and going gluten free can help reduce the antibodies and the attacks.
All blood tests for thyroid hormones have to be at the earliest possible, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between your last dose of hormones and the test and take afterwards. This helps keep our TSH at its highest as many doctors only look at the TSH and adjust willy/nilly according to the result. We want to have a stable dose and it should be increased by 25mcg every six weeks after a blood test.
Also request, B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate as deficiencies can also cause symptoms.
The aim of taking thyroid hormones is to get your TSH to 1 or lower and Free T4 and Free T3 in the upper part of the range. Many doctors/areas do not test the FT4 and FT3 so many members order private home tests. We only need to do them occasionally when we're not feeling well but doctor or endo is satisfied with our results.
Thyroid hormones have to be taken first thing on an empty stomach and wait about an hour before eating as food interferes with the uptake of hormones.
Some prefer bedtime dosing, in that case you'd last have eaten about 3 hours previously and miss this dose if you are having a blood test next a.m. and take it afterwards and at bedtime as usual.
Always get a print-out of your results with the ranges. Ranges are important as labs differ.
B12, the aim should be 1,000 but maybe your GP should test for the instrinsic factor before you supplement with methylcobalamin B12 sublingual tablets. This test excludes Pernicious Anaemia.
Others will respond re folate and ferritin. This is a past post by SeasideSusie which should be helpful as your results above are tool low.
So the plan of action for me is to ask for investigations into Addisons, get thyroid antibodies for Hashimoto tested and investigation into pernicious anaemia
OK, well, that could just be low cortisol/adrenal fatigue. It doesn't have to be Addison's. But, the trouble is that testing for Addison's does not pick up on adrenal fatigue. If it's negative for Addison's, the doctor will tell you there's nothing wrong with your adrenals, when there absolutely could be.
Your doctor might do an early morning cortisol blood test, but that's not enough, either. What you really need is a 24 hour saliva cortisol test. But, you won't get that on the NHS, I'm afraid.
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