Desiccated Thyroid

[jillybits]

Hi All

Newbie here looking for some help! I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid over a year ago and put on 75mgs of thyroxine. This has not helped and my symptoms are the same. The worst ones for me are the hair loss, very dry skin, brain fog, poor memory and poor concentration. I also, like everyone else have very poor energy and low mood. My results show my TSH levels within the normal range and doctor not upping my dose of thyroxine even though I've told him I still feel dreadful and my hair is just getting thinner and thinner which is really upsetting. I know for a fact if I go to my G.P he will not prescribe me desiccated thyroid so I'm looking for advice on where to get it and what dose I should be taking? I really am at my wits end, im a young woman but feel like my life is passing me by like so many of us here!! Thanks in advance

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Jillybits

Welcome to the forum.

My results show my TSH levels within the normal range

Before you consider NDT, it's essential to know that all the building blocks are in place for Levo to work and to be on an optimal dose. The aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or below or wherever it needs to be for FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of their respective reference ranges when on Levo if that is where you feel well. For you to say your TSH is within the normal range sounds as though you're not on enough Levo, but that isn't the whole picture. FT4 and FT3 are the thyroid hormones so they're the important tests. And vitamins and minerals need to be optimal for thyroid hormone to work.

Can you post your latest results (please include the reference ranges) and we can see if there are any obvious problems. Ideally we need to see

TSH

FT4

FT3

Thyroid antibodies

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

[jillybits in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi Susie thanks for getting back to me

My TSH level is 0.54 I dont have any other results.. Should I go back to my Doctor and ask him to test me for all the above? Sorry Im new to all of this and trying to get my head around everything.

[jillybits in reply to SeasideSusie]

Oh and sorry the range is 0.3 to 4.9

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to jillybits]

JIllybits

OK, so with a TSH of 0.54 (0.3 to 4.9) I can understand why your GP didn't increase your dose. Unfortunately, TSH is all most doctors take into consideration but it's not the whole picture. TSH isn't even a thyroid hormone, it's a signal from the pituitary to tell the thyroid to make hormone if it doesn't detect any. You are taking replacement hormone so the pituitary has detected that so isn't sending the signal so your TSH is low.

The thyroid hormones are FT4 and FT3 and it's these that tell us our thyroid status and if they are low, particularly FT3, then we are going to be symptomatic.

You really do need all those tests doing so we can see where the problem lies. If your GP wont do them (and he wont be able to get FT3 done as it's the lab that makes the decision and if TSH is in range they wont do it, and you may not get the antibodies tested either), then we have recommended labs that can do the whole lot as a bundle, either by fingerprick at home or with a venous blood draw.

Best value for that test, until the end of this month is medichecks.com/thyroid-func... and it is £79 instead of £99.

There's a few things that spring to mind as to what the problem might be, but no point in going into detail until we see actual results and then tailor any response to those.

When you have the results, make a new thread and list them, along with their reference ranges, and we can take it from there. You can either link back to this thread for information, or put relevant information in the new thread.

[jillybits in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks so much for all this info Susie, I will get these bloods done ASAP and get back to you. My Doctor has an under active thyroid himself and since taking thyroxine feels great again so I think he thinks I should be too but I’m really not! Thanks again, I’ll order these tests today, well worth the money I feel if I get answers