Thoughts on this blood test before ordering please :o)

[Wispymisty]

Hi, well I'm about to (finally) bite the bullet and order some blood tests prior to my endocrinologist appointment next month. I'm looking at this test as it seems to include a really good mix if tests, all the thyroid ones, other hormonal ones and also dhea. medichecks.com/tests/ultima... I'm wondering whether there would be any benefit to a cortisol test too? Maybe I'll wait and see how these results come back.

What do people think to this test?

Thanks in advance

:o)

[fibrolinda]

morning Cortisol is included 🙂 that is a pretty comprehensive test I may well save up for it myself. I'll wait see what the experts say,

[JumpJiving]

I've had the Ultimate Performance test done, as well as ones that focus purely on thyroid, and a couple of individual ones such as Selenium.

For me, the Ultimate Performance test showed up a couple of non-thyroid related things that required follow-up, in particular a liver condition that my GP wouldn't have spotted until it had progressed much further. I recommend the Ultimate Performance to get a snapshot of a whole range of things, but if you purely want to focus on thyroid-related bits and are not interested in rT3, look at Thyroid Check UltraVit which is cheaper.

The one thing that Ultimate Performance doesn't include that I wish it did is rT3. If you want a thyroid check including rT3 look at Thyroid Check UltraVit rT3 or Thyroid Monitoring rT3

[Wispymisty in reply to JumpJiving]

Hi, thanks for that :o)

I'm looking for more of an overview as have recently been told that i have a possible squashed pituitary (Empty Sella Syndrome) and I'm wondering if that could be the underlying cau of my problems. I was prev querying Hashimoto but think I need to rule things on or out now. I've had a fibromyalgia dia for 9 years a have felt pretty uninvolved in my health decisions so think it's time to ta a bit more control. I shall have to look into rT3 though so thank you f pointing thst omission out to me

[JumpJiving in reply to Wispymisty]

Having rT3 done does add to the price, and it increases the turnaround time significantly.

This is what Medichecks say about rT3:

"Normally T4 is converted to T3, the biologically active thyroid hormone. However, when the body is under stress (due to illness, starvation, stress or extreme cold), it converts T4 to reverse T3 (rT3) which inhibits the action of T3 in our cells. This is thought to be a protective mechanism to conserve energy.

What might a low result mean?

It is normal to have some reverse T3 in your blood as your body converts T4 into both T3 and rT3 in varying proportions.

What might a high result mean?

A high level of reverse T3 in your blood may indicate that your body is trying to conserve energy. This test will not tell you why you have elevated rT3 but it may indicate that an underlying condition needs more careful management, and may explain why you are experiencing symptoms of an underactive thyroid when your thyroid hormones appear normal.

Knowing your reverse T3 level is of limited value in guiding treatment of a thyroid condition as there has been very little research into the use of rT3 in the treatment of thyroid disease."

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Wispymisty]

Testing rT3 really isn't worth the money or extra time. Yes, it can tell you if your rT3 is high, but what it can't do is tell you why it's high, and there are many, many reasons for high rT3 that aren't connected, including:

Chronic fatigue, Acute illness and injury, Chronic disease, Increased cortisol (stress), Low cortisol (adrenal fatigue), Low iron, Lyme disease, Chronic inflammation. Also selenium deficiency, excess physical, mental and environmental stresses. Also Beta-blocker long-term use such as propranolol, metoprolol, etc. Physical injury is a common cause of increased RT3, also illnesses like the flu. Starvation/severe calorie restriction is known to raise RT3. Diabetes when poorly treated is known to increase RT3. Lyme disease. Cirrhosis of the liver. Fatty liver disease. Any other liver stress Renal Failure. A fever of unknown cause. Detoxing of high heavy metals.

So I wouldn't worry too much about testing rT3. As long as TSH, FT4 and FT3 are included then you'd know if there's a possibility of thyroid-related rT3 if FT4 is very high and FT3 is low.