Hi im new here. Im battling to lose weight for the past year. The harder i try the more i put on. Im currently 15 kg overweight. I have other symptoms of underactive thyroid like low libido falling hair constipation cold feet. Mr recent labs are as follows FT3 2.14 pg/ml
FT4 0.89 ng/dL. I am within the reference range in my country so my doctor refuses to treat my condition further. Can anyone here offer any advices
Thanks in advance
Bibisouth
Yo say you are within the reference ranges for your country, but it would help us to understand your results if you could please add those ranges. Also, did you have TSH tested? And thyroid antibodies? They all help to build a proper picture to enable us to try and help.
My Tsh is 1.78 the reference range for my country for ft3 and ft4 is as follows Ft3 2.6 to 5.7 pmoI/L
Ft4 9 to 19 pmoI/L. In my previous post I converted my results to ng/dl.
Unfortunately having different units of measurement for the result and the range means we can't interpret your results.
We need the result and the range in the same unit of measurement please, there is no need to convert anything, we can see where the result lies within the range if the units are the same.
Ok my results are as follows
FT3 3.3 pmoI/L Ref range 2.6 to 5.7
FT4 11.4 pmoI/L. Ref range 9 to 19
TSH. 1.78 uIu/ mL. Ref range 0.35 to 4.94
I hope this helps. Thank you
Bibisouth
There is nothing in your results that really points to a thyroid problem. Your TSH is where one would expect to see it for someone without a thyroid problem - less than 2.
FT4 and FT3 are in the lower part if their ranges but I'm not sure if they are low enough to suggest Central Hypothyroidism. This is where the problem lies with the pituitary or the hypothalamus rather than the thyroid and is suggested by low, normal or slightly elevated TSH with low FT4.
You could ask your doctor to look into this
bestpractice.bmj.com/topics...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
But it would also be worth having thyroid antibodies tested - Thyroid Peroxidase and Thyroglobulin - if these are raised then it suggests autoimmune thyroid disease aka Hashimoto's which is where the antibodies attack the thyroid and gradually destroy it. The antibody attacks cause fluctuations in test results and symptoms.
It would also be worth getting vitamins and minerals tested as sometimes low levels or deficiencies can cause symptoms that overlap with hypothyroidism.
Vit D
B12
Folate
Ferritin
Thanks for looking at my results. I googled optimal thyroid ranges and all the results that came up show that my results are not in the optimal range. I will try to get the othe blood tests done soon
Bibisouth
Unfortunately, because we are never routinely tested for FT4 and FT3, nobody knows where they need these levels to be well. And because we are all different, there is no universal "optimal level". Your FT4 and FT3 are very low in their ranges and it would be unusual for anyone to feel completely well with those levels.
However, when diagnosing hypothyroidism, it's often just the TSH that doctors go by. In the UK, despite the reference range usually going no higher than 5, doctors make patients wait until TSH reaches 10 before diagnosing. What is the level of TSH where you are diagnosed in your country? Is it just that you have to go above range, or do you have to reach a much higher number like we do in the UK?
The TSH RANGE is upto 5 before you get diagnosed here. I am in South Africa.
How are you trying to lose weight? By reducing your calorie in-take lower and lower? That would make you put on more because low calorie in-take negatively affects conversion of T4 to T3. And it's low T3 that causes symptoms like weight-gain. Plus, if you the go and over-exercise in an attempt to lose weight, you will use up your precious store of calories and make things even worse. You probably need to eat more and move less - just gentle walking or swimming until your FT3 is optimal.
So, what do you take? Levo? And how much?
I tried everything for weight loss. I did Banting , I did weight watchers I did calorie counting, Intermittent fasting absolutely nothing worked. I never lost a gram nor a cm. I walk briskly for abt 40 min daily on the treadmill. Besides that im mostly sedentary at a desk. Im a mum of 6 kids and i never battled to lose weight after each pregnancy. My youngest is 4 years old and i did lose the pregnancy weight after she was born but the weight crept back. So at the beginning of this year I decided i have to get back in shape. I was shocked when the weight didn’t budge irrespective of how strict i was on any of the eating plans. As i last resort I decided to do banting thinking my body needs something different to shock it into dropping the weight. But even then there was zero results.
It would be. Your weight has little to do with what you eat when you're hypo. It's probably water-weight, anyway, which wouldn't respond to dieting. Or exercise. And, as I said, can possibly make things worse. So, stop dieting and concentrate on optimising your T3 - that's what's going to help you lose weight, not starving yourself. Have you ever had your FT3 tested? If not, I suggest you get private labs done.
Talking about water weight I did cupping this week and the therapist showed me the cups after she removed them. Each cup had a bit of water in it. The blood was clotted at the bottom of the cup and there was water in each cup. She did tell me im carrying a lot of water. But the strange thing is i do not have signs if swollen ankles or feet.
You don't have to have swollen ankles or feet. It could be internal. Could be anywhere.
I've no idea what cupping is. What do you do that for?
Cupping is an ancient method of alternative healing. You can try googling it there are lots of info on the net. Any tips on how to get rid of the internal water. What could be the cause.
Well, the cause is being hypo. If anyone found a way to get rid of it, they'd probably win the Noble Prize!
So, do you do the cupping to help your hypo? I'm really not sure that would work.
Yes i did have my FT3 tested my results are 3.3 pmoI/L. Im not sure whats the measurements of testing used in your country.
You mean the range? Doesn't matter what it is in my country, what is the FT3 range where you are? Ranges vary from lab to lab, even inside the same country. There are no sorts of standards, it just depends on the machine used to do the analysis. 3.3 could be bottom of the range, could be top, but we need to see the range to understand the result. 
The range is 2.6 to 5.7
Then your FT3 is pretty low. Mid-range is 4.15, so you're well below it. And most hypos need their FT3 up near the top of the range to get rid of symptoms and be well.
The commonest question on this forum is 'weight gain'. Unexplained Weight gain is a worldwide clinical symptom of hypothyroidism - it should be slowly reversed with the optimum of thyroid hormones but many doctors don't allow a sufficient dose to bring TSH to 1 or lower with FT3 and FT4 both of which have to be towards the upper part of the ranges.
When you get a blood test it always has to be at the very earliest, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose and the test and take afterwards. This helps give us a more accurate result. TSH drops throughout the day and that seems to be all the doctor takes notice of as many only test TSH and T4 which isn't informative enough. We are dealing with metabolism and we need optimum thyroid dose to allow both FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of the ranges.
If GP wont test the following, you can get a private blood test from one of the recommended labs on TUK who do home pin-prick tests and you have to be well hydrated a couple of days before blood draw.
Request TSH, T4, T3, Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies. If you've not had the following tested (everything has to be optimum) request:
The following are clinical symptoms:
thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
Always get a print-out of your blood test with the ranges. Ranges are in brackets after the results and as labs differ in their machines there are different ranges. Members cannot respond unless ranges are shown after the results.
Ask GP to also test B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate. Deficiencies in these also cause symptoms.
I lost a lot of weight when I started taking T3 and switched to autoimmune paleo diet.
T4 alone never worked for me. I tried several different brands of NDT but didn't feel well on any of them and the weight just kept going up. Then upon advice of a private endo I tried synthetic T4+T3 combination. It started to shift the weight down slowly. I made a decision later on to switch to T3 only and changed my diet to autoimmune paleo and this is when my weight started going down really fast. Although I am now considering adding some T4 back as my energy levels weren't as good on T3 alone.
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