Hypothyroid results please help

[Nurseamber2012]

Hi I’m a hypothyroid I was born with it and have had it all my life. I’m 24 and have symptoms of being very sweaty all the time achey joints and need approximately 2 hour naps every day to get through.

iso I got some bloods done they just did a tft my tsh was 4.9 and my T4 was 17. I was really surprised because I would have thought my t4 was way higher because I am sweating buckets... does anyone have any suggestions ?

Thanks

[Nanaedake]

Could you add the lab ranges to the blood test results? We need these to interpret results accurately as lab ranges vary from lab to lab and country to country. It looks like you need more levothyroxine but can't be sure as no lab ranges included in your text.

[Nurseamber2012 in reply to Nanaedake]

Tsh 0.4-5 mine is 4.9

T4 - 10-24 mine is 17

It seems really strange because I only usually sweat this much when I’m really high/too high. I currently take 100mcg levothyroxine one day and 125mg the next.

Thanks Claire

[Nanaedake in reply to Nurseamber2012]

Most people need a TSH of around 1 or even sometimes a little lower to be symptom free. Have you had an evaluation of vitamin levels, particularly vitamin D? It's very common for people with thyroid disease to be low and it can cause symptoms.

Ask your doctor to check B12, folate, ferritin and vitamin D. When you have the results, post them here for good advice.

[shaws Administrator]

Welcome to our forum, and you have my sympathy and most of the other members' too in that you've never known good health.

At present your TSH is far too high but that's due to ignorant doctors and endocrinologists believing that if the TSH is 'somewhere' in the range - in your case up to 4.9 that we are on sufficient.

We need optimum thyroid hormones to bring TSH to 1 or lower and a Free T4 and Free T3 in the upper part of the ranges. The latter are rarely tested.

My personal opinion is that as you've never had a working thyroid gland that you do need a combination of T3/T4 which might work wonders for you, and due to whoever treats you is happy with your TSH result which is too high.

We all have to read, learn and ask questions - as you are doing and we can finally get the good health we deserve - if only the NHS will again prescribe T3 which was withdrawn due to exorbitant costs by the providers and it is being investigated at present in the Lords.

Levothyroxine is an inactive hormone - it has to convert to T3 (liothyronine) and it is this hormone which runs our whole metabolism from head to toe and we have millions of T3 receptor cells which need T3 - our heart and brain need the most.

Many source their own T3 at present due to it being removed from the NHS. It would seem to me that the Thyroid Organisations took the chance to have it removed as they believe that levothyroxine is sufficient to bring good health. On this forum we know that not everyone does and doses prescribed are usually too low to keep the TSH somewhere in the range - never mind if it is at the top instead of near bottom.

Request a new blood test - if GP or lab wont do them you can get private home pin-prick tests from one of our three recommended labs. If you decide to do so make sure you are well-hydrated a couple of days before for blood draw. Or surgery may draw blood for you but you'd have to check.

All blood tests for thyroid hormones have to be at the very earliest, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hourws between last dose of levo and test and take afterwards.

Always get a print-out of your results, for your own records, and if you have a query you can post them.

Your GP should also test B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate. Everything is to be at optimum - not just in range.

Also, the original thyroid hormone can be sourced privately - it is the very original and first introduced in 1892 but that has also been withdraw. It is called NDT i.e. Natural Dessicated Thyroid Hormones and has been in use (in various forms) since. It contains all of the hormones a healthy gland would produce. Like all thyroid hormones it is trial and error as it is a personal choice and obviously one you want to remove your symptoms.

I am not medically qualified but had undiagnosed hypothyroidism undetected by many of the professionals I sought for help in diagnosing why I was so unwell. None did and I diagnosed myself.

[eeng]

Sweating is a sign of a problem with your metabolism of some kind. People with hypothyroidism get it as well as people with hyperthyroidism. I used to get alternate night sweats and shivers until my hypothyroidism was sorted out, as though my metabolism was swinging around from hot to cold. Do you have any other symptoms? As Nanaedake says, your TSH needs to be around 1. We say this because an academic study of lots of people in Norway with healthy thyroids found that something like 95% have a TSH between 0.5 and 1.5.

[klr31]

Have you changed brands of thyroxine. I found Teva brand made me sweat terribly and had to change them.

Karen