Hi, I had a print out of my recent blood results today but can't make sense of the measurements because different units used. At least it does say which levels show an abnormality, and gives the range, but how do you change from one kind of unit to another?
One link for example gives measurements in "ng/dl", whatever that means, but my tests are in mm, gm, ug, mU, umol etc per litre!
Way back when I did science the main units were mm, nm etc
Can anyone help? I never was much good at maths!!!
Nanograms per decilitre google a conversion site.
What test were you doing that gave you ng/dL in the result? It makes a difference to how you convert.
I'm almost sure that someone in a discussion on here said that TSH should be<1.
The range given on mine is 0.27 - 4.20, and my result was "5.94mU/L". This is marked as "High" of course, but I was wondering if whoever said it should be <1 was using those units or not.
A friend sent me a link to a list of ranges and they were in ng/dL. I did find a conversion chart (lost it again now!) but that was to different units again!
Ah right - no, it doesn’t matter about units. What matters is the reference range - the 0.27 - 4.20 bit. Your result is above range. We often say “less than 1.0” as a kind of shorthand - but in fact some find they don’t feel better until their TSH is nearer the very bottom of its range (in your case 0.27) and their FT3 and FT4 high in their respective ranges.
TSH is a rarity - one that is always in the same units. Never seen it other than as milli-International Units per Litre (however it is written - e.g μIU/mL - which is exactly the same).
There is absolutely no point in using reference ranges from labs other than the one that did your tests.
Jnetti
Is there a reason you need to change the unit of measurement?
It's where in the range that counts, that tells you what you want to know.
Mainly trying to make sense of my results. Started sniffing along a rabbit trail and got down a rabbit hole as a result!
Call me Alice, lol
OK Alice 
There are lots of members who can read and interpret results, have experience of all sorts of things. Any questions, pop them on the forum 
Thanks, there is a lot of interesting information on here xx
he print out was confusing so I copied the results onto a table in a Word document and studied it, comparing the latest with the previous one to see if levels had changed. Also showed a friend who is a nurse, though not a thyroid expert. She was so interested she decided to read up on it herself!
Only answering now because several of the posts got into my spam folder and I forgot to check it
Jnetti, for most purposes, you will never have to understand or convert the units. The only instance I can think of is if you were constantly globe trotting and getting your regular thyroid tests in different countries where different units are the norm 
Even then, you could just look at the percentage up the range each result is.
On this forum we are usually talking about NHS results, or private tests that often use the same labs the NHS ones use, so the same tests are almost always done in the same units.
I guess there are US websites you might visit where different units are used? But in those cases I only look into converting things if I really really want to know what they mean. And in Google you can always type: "what is 10 feet in metres", and the answer will pop up.
Thanks everyone. I was just fussing and asking silly questions! Copied out my results and found that my cholesterol was up, and one of the liver results. T4 lowish and TSH a bit over the limit high, so borderline still at the moment. Iron and Folate lowish, though not below limit, and rising with help of supplements. Most of the rest was basically normal.
And it says I have enough B12 to last at least 2 years!
I'm grateful to still be in comparatively good shape.
What on earth is happening to my TSH levels?
What is happening now!
WHAT IS GOING ON?!!
Is overdosing on T4 dangerous?
