How many hours between medication and blood work on desiccated thyroid

[dragonfly76]

Hi everyone. My naturopath told me to leave 24 hours between medication and blood work. I know people here recommend 8-12 and I am not sure what is the best thing to do. I still don't feel well even though My Free T's are on top of the range. I have Hashimoto's and I don't feel optimal yet. My naturopath is specialized in thyroid and she prescribes desiccated thyroid. I appreciate any comments.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Because it's important to know your FT3 result when on NDT, if you leave 24 hours you'll get a false low FT3 result.

From your previous post

"My ferritin is 31 range 5-272"

That's a major problem. No thyroid hormone is going to work properly until Ferritin is at least 70, recommended is half way through range.

Have you had Vit D tested yet?

[dragonfly76 in reply to SeasideSusie]

My ferritin after periods goes to 19, I have a hard time to increase it. I think I have to wait to menopause to increase my ferritin. I am taking 2 capsules a day, hoping that I will increase . I eat a lot of meat, I don't absorb the iron and B12. I will have my vitamin D and folate tested in a few week because is together with my thyroid blood work. What do I say to my naturopath if she asks how many hours I had between medication and blood work? My doctor gave me a hard time with the vitamin D and folate test and he refused to do a full iron panel. It's a battle with no ending. Thanks for your time and when I do the blood work I will post it.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to dragonfly76]

What do I say to my naturopath if she asks how many hours I had between medication and blood work?

Ask her why she wants such a long gap. Remind her that T3 has a half life of 24 hours but that you understand it is no longer detectable in the blood after 12 hours, so doesn't it make sense to test while there is some detectable in the blood. If you leave 24 hours and there's no T3 left to measure in the blood, you will get a false low FT3 result. Why would she want that?

But the blood test doesn't measure what T3 is in our cells, they don't (or can't) test that. The blood test tells that what's in the blood only and is available to go to our cells.

[dragonfly76 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you so much. Next time I'll do it in 12 hours.

[SmallBlueThing]

I had a test sprung on me, five hours after my dose, and my fT3 was 7.0 with range 3.5-6.5.

I take Levo and Thiroyd, to give T3 about 10% of the weight of my dose of T4, taken as one dose in the morning. If I'm over-dosed, arm shakiness affects me at about 5pm. I expect a temperature of nearly 37C at midnight when things are going as well as they can. When under-dosed, my daytime temperature drops to as low as 35.3C. I have a history of Lyme disease, which can be expected to lower one's temperature, and may trigger Hashi's. Heat intolerance was noticeable when I had hyper flares, before Lyme.