Yet again my blood results only indicate that my TSH level was checked. It is within range at 1.3miu/L with a range of 0.3-4.2miu/L. I am on 125mg Thyroxine.
I asked to be retested because my body aches, most noticeably in the joints in my hand, which is an indication to me that something is not right.
I recall on here that some people state that their optimum TSH level is under 1. However I just want some confirmation that I am recalling this information correctly. Only because I am considering self medicating at this point by alternating my Thyroxine intake by 150mg and 125mg to reduce the TSH level to under 1 to see if that helps. I work in a busy office environment on the computer all day and this is hard when my fingers feel like they are seizing up.
For further background, I do not eat gluten, dairy or pork as I have a gained nasty intolerance to all three of these food groups. I never cheat as eating any of these things makes me very ill.
Guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks guys 😊
Written by
Sunsette1
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The aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or below or wherever it needs to be for FT4 and FT3 to be in the upper part of their reference ranges, if that is where you feel well.
Just testing TSH alone is not enough. TSH is not a thyroid hormone, it's a signal from the pituitary for the thyroid to make hormone. The thyroid hormones are FT4 and FT3 and it's the level of these we need to know if we are adequately medicated. TSH is useful for diagnosing thyroid disorders, but once diagnosed and on treatment it's not a lot of use where monitoring is concerned.
Many labs wont test FT4 and FT3 if TSH is in range and there's not much we can do about that so that's why hundreds of us here do private tests with one of our recommended labs.
If your GP can't or wont get FT4 and FT3 tested, maybe you could consider a private test that does the full thyroid panel, and if you haven't had vitamins tested recently I'd include that as well and do either the Medichecks Thyroid ULTRAVIT test or Blue Horizon Thyroid PLUS ELEVEN.
Presumably if diagnosed as hypothyroid at birth, you have no thyroid at all
For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 tested. Also extremely important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if under medicated
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
Last Levothyroxine dose should be 24 hours prior to test, (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).
Is this how you do your tests?
Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies or all vitamins
Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random
The aim of Levothyroxine is to increase the dose slowly in 25mcg steps upwards until TSH is under 2 (many need TSH significantly under one) and most important is that FT4 in top third of range and FT3 at least half way in range
All four vitamins need to be regularly tested and frequently need supplementing to maintain optimal levels
NHS guidelines on Levothyroxine including that most patients eventually need somewhere between 100mcg and 200mcg Levothyroxine.
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