Congenital Hypothyroidism

[Amandajane72]

I was born with congenital hypothyroidism. I am on 175mg of Levothyroxine. I have to watch my weight, which I don't do as much as I should, but I am not dangerously overweight. I walk alot. I have recently passed Reiki level one and have been attuned. At the moment I feel pretty good. It has thrown me a few challenges in 46 years of living but nothing major fortunately.

[shaws Administrator]

First of all Amandajane72, welcome to our forum and am sorry you've had hypothyroidism all of your life. I am very glad you have also found levothyroxine works well for you.

However, I believe, as you mention you have to watch your weight, that you may not be on an optimum dose. (I am not medically qualified).

I shall give you a couple of hints which may be to your advantage to get the best out of your blood tests results:-

1. The appointment always has to be at the very earliest.

2. You should fast but you can drink water.

3. Allow a gap of 24 hours between your last dose of levothyroxine and the test and take it afterwards.

This method allows your TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) to be at its highest (it drops throughout the day) and can mean the difference of getting an increase or not.

The aim is a TSH of 1 or below.

Ask GP to test the following - rarely tested but if he wont (I hope he does), you can get the 'frees' privately and we have recommended labs that do home pin-prick ones:

TSH, T4, T3, Free T4, Free T3. B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate.

Vitamin B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate.

Always get a print-out of your results, with the ranges, and put on a new post for comments from members.

Ideally you need a TSH of 1 or lower, FT4 and FT3 towards the upper part of the ranges.