I am after some advice please. A dear friend of mine has been suffering with an underactive thyroid for about 26 years and has always been on Levothyroxine and at present is on 125 mcg. For the past few months she has been feeling really poorly with substantial hair loss and has severe exhaustion and all she wants to do is stay in bed. She had blood tests done a few days ago with the usual TSH only. She had a call from her doctor today who has told her she is now overactive with a figure of 32.5. The Dr has told her she needs to reduce her dose of levothyroxine to 75 mcg or 100 mcg is it possible to be overactive at 32.5?????. I asked my friend if they had tested her B12 iron folic acid she's not sure just in shock and confused at the results. Any advice....
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Bookworm1961
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She had blood tests done a few days ago with the usual TSH only. She had a call from her doctor today who has told her she is now overactive with a figure of 32.5.
If TSH is really 32.5 then her doctor really doesn't have a clue. Could your friend have got this wrong? Was it the GP she spoke to or a receptionist? A TSH of 32.5 is very hypothyroid and she is undermedicated and needs an immediate increase in Levo of 25mcg, retesting in 6-8 weeks, then retesting/increasing by 25mcg every 6-8 weeks until her levels are where they need to be for her to feel well.
If it's actually FT4 that is 32.5 then she is very likely overmedicated or she took her Levo before the blood test. The last dose of Levo should be 24 hours before the blood draw.
Before she changes her dose of Levo, she should pop along to the surgery and ask at the reception desk for a print out of her test results, she shouldn't accept verbal or hand written results (mistakes can be made), it needs to be a print out and the reference ranges should be alongside the results so they can be interpreted.
Thank you for your immediate response the doctor would only have tested her TSH on the basic blood form I am sure as I've never seen that request on my blood forms. Although I have a full thyroid panel done now as I am under a Consultant at the hospital for mine.
I have told her to get a copy of her blood tests on Monday as I do. Her asthma is really bad at the moment as well and I know that an underactive thyrous can cause that to worsen.
To date with myself I have recently been diagnosed with Borderline Severe Exocrine Pancreatic insufficiency I am under gastroenterologist and have CT scan done recently thankfully there does not appear to be any serious problems with my pancreas. Have had full bloods done with antibodies am due for review on Monday and will find out the cause. I did post few weeks ago and am awaiting bloods results so will write to the Administrator on the forum who asked me to post them. Maybe Levothyroxine needs to be increased. I know I am not Celiac but could be gluten causing gas.
Just a thought. Does she take Biotin (B7) or B Complex containing Biotin? If so, did she stop it 7 days before the test? Taking Biotin in the week before can give false blood test results if biotin is used in the testing procedure, so as we don't know which NHS labs use biotin then it should be left off before a test.
I just spoke to her she said thank you for caring but she is not taking any supplements at all. I have just told her to hang on in there while she is on the path to recovery like we all are.
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