Help with thyroxine

[Carrie97]

So I’ve been hypo for 11 years, on various doses from 125 all through pregnancy right to 200mcg levo, last few years I’ve been mostly on 175-200 I’m so fat now and have anxiety and vertigo etc my recent bloods were tsh 0.01 (0.30-3.30) T4 20 (10-25) ive decided to take 150 for a trial and see how that goes. But I’m worried I gain even more weight years ago and while pregnant I felt good with T4 around 16 and to be honest I’ve not felt right for years. Do you think I’m doing the right thing?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Carrie

You really need FT3 tested to see how well you are converting T4 to T3. T3 is the active hormone that every cell in our body needs and low FT3 will cause symptoms.

You could ask your GP to test TSH, FT4 and FT3 all together but it's possible that the lab may refuse to do FT3. You can do a private fingerprick test in that case and Medichecks have 20% off until 30th April.

Have you had thyroid antibodies tested, also vitamins and minerals

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

If not these are important tests too and complete the picture.

[Carrie97 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi

Yeah I’ve had previous testing and I convert fine, haven’t had my minerals tested recently. But I’ll ask for that. In the meantime do you think it’s ok to reduce? I’ve reduced 200-175 in January as my palps were so bad and they’ve improved

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Carrie97]

The decision has to be yours, but lowering your dose will lower your FT4 and FT3, and of course there is the chance you will gain weight as you've said.

Anxiety can be a symptom of hypothyroidism, so can dizziness. Low B12 can cause dizziness as well.

[Carrie97 in reply to SeasideSusie]

I’m worried being over medicated for me is keeping my fat by being hungry all the time

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Carrie97]

But you're not overmedicated. Your FT4 is 2/3rd way through it's range. You're only overmedicated if FT3 is over range and you don't have that result.

You may be optimally medicated anywhere in the range, it is very individual where we feel best. But you have symptoms of hypothyhroidism. I see you also have Hashi's, so you can get hyper-type symptoms and hypo symptoms so maybe the feeling hungry is part of that. So are you addressing the Hashi's with a strict gluten free diet and supplementing with selenium l-selenomethionine 200mcg daily which can help reduce the antibodies, as can keeping TSH suppressed.

Did you look into the BPPV mentioned in reply to one of your previous posts, to see if that is why you are experiencing dizziness.