Thyroid test / 24 hour urine

[Tanyaking]

Has anybody in the group done the 24 hour urine test with Genova?

What does it show,as in what way is it helpful?

Tanya

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Tanyaking

Yes, I have done the 24 hour urine test, 3 times altogether.

First time was to see what the T4 and T3 levels showed after I'd had blood tests which showed poor conversion of T4 to T3. Urine test confirmed the same.

I started adding T3 to my Levo, repeated the urine test after a while to see if anything had changed. Test showed the my T3 had increased.

Did the test a 3rd time after taking T3 for some time to see what further progress had been made, again it showed further increase in T3.

Haven't done it since because those tests told me everything I wanted to know.

If you are thinking of doing the test, you have to be extremely careful about the timing of the collection of urine over 24 hours, get it wrong and you've wasted your money. If you decide to do it, contact me and I will explain exactly how it needs to be done.

[Tanyaking in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you for sharing..if I’m on NDT and T3 already will the same pattern show the same as the bloods do. ,that the T3 will push the T4 low? I hope I’ve done the test correctly,I did read it all over and over ..but I’m so foggy.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Tanyaking]

Tanyaking

I think it's easy to get confused with the instructions for the test with regards to empty bladder and timing. The correct way to do it is - timings are for example only -

Day 1 - 7am - rise, empty your bladder, DO NOT COLLECT THIS URINATION, start timing now. Test must start with empty bladder.

Collect each urination through the day and night

Day 2 - 7am - rise, collect urine (every last drop!), finish collection after this urination.

That gives a 24 hour collection starting with an empty bladder.

Also, timing of medication is critical too. You must only take the normal amount of thyroid hormone during that 24 hours ie one day's worth.

So if you take your NDT at 7am on rising, take it on day 1.

Do not take on day 2 until after the final urination.

So if you take, say, 2.5 grains NDT and 25mcg T3, then you must only take that amount in the 24 hours of the test.

Is this how you did your test?

The blood test and urine test doesn't show the same thing so you can't compare them.

The blood test shows what is circulating in the blood at the time of blood draw, it doesn't tell you what reaches the cells.

Genova describe the urine test as assessing tissue exposure to thyroid hormones over a 24-hour period.

As I say, you can't compare them, but to illustrate I can tell you what mine showed.

When on Levo only:

Blood test -

FT4: 28.59 (12-22) ~ 165% of range

FT3: 5.14 (3.1-6.8) ~ 55%

through range

Urine test -

T4: 1590 (550-3160) ~ 39%

T3: 691 (800-2500) ~ minus 6.4%

Both those tests showed poor conversion, the urine test showing it more than the blood test.

1 year later when on Levo + T3 after many dose changes

Blood test -

FT4: 23.73 (12-22) ~ 117%

FT3: 6.25 (3.1-6.8) ~ 85%

Urine test -

T4: 4360 (1030-8240) ~ 46%

T3: 2010 (610-3380) ~ 50%

So you can see the blood and urine tests don't compare.

Reducing my Levo and adding T3 showed in the blood tests, as expected - FT4 was lower, FT3 was higher.

With the urine tests it shows that more T4 reached the tissues as well as more T3.

[Tanyaking in reply to SeasideSusie]

Yes I did it exactly as you say...

Gosh so adding the T3 increased the amount of T4 that reached the tissues aswell as increasing the T3 hugely,have I got that right? I wonder how that is? As you’d lowered the T4,but yet it’s increased hugely...foggy head ...it can only be that the addition of the T3 helped chaperone the T4 too the tissues.hhmmmm

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Tanyaking]

Tanya

I have given percentages because the ranges for the urine test changed. My T4 increased from 39% to 46% after I added T3, so a slight increase there. It's also interesting to note that with the first test (39%) I was taking 175mcg Levo and with the other test, a year later, I was taking 125mcg Levo plus 18.75mcg T3. I can't explain it, I don't know the science, I can only interpret the numbers. It's interesting that at the time of the first test my ferritin was 53 (20-150) and at the time of the other test it was 87.56 (13-150).

The biggest difference was in the amount of T3 reaching the tissues - from minus 6.4 to 50% with the addition of just 18.75mcg T3.

[Tanyaking in reply to SeasideSusie]

Got it thank you.

Would you be able to help me with percentages when I get my results from the natrapath please

.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Tanyaking]

Tanyaking

Yes, I'll do whatever I can