MANY THANKS

[Ladybex]

I would like to thank everyone who has answered many of my questions

It really means so much to me ...

wishing you all The very best

Ann B

[shaws Administrator]

All our members are very helpful and the majority have had to find their own way to relieve their symptoms and return to god health.

[SilverAvocado]

Hi Ladybex, I've clicked through from someone else's post to have a look at your situation. You've been left on 25mcg of Levo for two years, and these are your latest blood tests from June this year?

11th june

TSH 11.4

FreeT4 8,8

TPO more than 1300

A TSH of 11.4 is very very high. TSH stands for thyroid stimulating hormone. This is the chemical messenger your body makes to ask for more hormone. In a person with a healthy thyroid this would be about 0.8-2, once on thyroid hormone replacement most of us will feel well with it at the bottom end or below. Yours is enormously higher than that, which tells us you're very undermedicated.

FreeT4 shows how much T4 is in your body. Levothyroxine contains only T4, so we need to see that high in range, often people need it all the way at the top. Without the range we can't tell exactly how high this is, but for many common ranges it's below the bottom of the range!

My suggestion would be to have an increase of 25mcg straight away, a retest in 6 weeks and adjust the dose again. If you're like me, you'll need several increases to get close to your optimal dose. You may have to fight with your doctor to get this! There is advice throughout the forum about persuading doctors. I suspect both of these numbers are outside the reference range, so that is the first thing to say to your doctor, "Aren't they supposed to be inside the range?".

These low levels will be making you feel absolutely dreadful. Every cell and organ in the body needs thyroid hormone, so it will also be amplifying and maybe causing any other illnesses you have, too.

[Ladybex in reply to SilverAvocado]

Thank you for taking time to message me that. I’m seeing GP tomorrow and will read this to her. I was told to increase alternate days of 25mcg so one day take 1 tablet 2nd day take 2 tablets . On doing this my eyes all swelled up and I was really bad so went back to 1 a day.. I will have new blood test results tomorrow so hoping I will get some answers. Will let you know

Thanks again

[SilverAvocado in reply to Ladybex]

Hi Ladybex,

You're very welcome

Be careful about reading out that whole post to a doctor, as they do not like to be told what to do, often don't know much about thyroid. There are often disagreements between patients and doctors about the best way to dose patients, and I told you the patient version not the doctor version!

If I were you I would focus on the very simple parts that all doctors should agree with. This is a very high TSH, it will be around double the top of the reference range. The guidelines say it should be pushed down inside the range and to about 2 at the highest.

If you've struggled to increase in the past then this may be the sticky point. You are very undermedicated, and that was a half-sized increase, so small that your body will barely be able to tell the difference. This suggests the problem here is not the thyroid hormone, your body desperately needs that increase. Eyes swelling sounds very much like an allergy or intolerance to fillers to me. But I don't know much about this, so it might be worth making a new post about how you are struggling to increase. Hypo people are often very sensitive to chemicals and additives in food and medicine.

Its possible your doctor agrees your TSH is far too high, wants to give you the increase, but what they're not doing is looking into this intolerance. You might have to fight for this. My suggestion would be to take the increase, take the tablets and allow the eyes to swell if that happens again, and go back into the surgery fighting to be given a different brand of tablets or other intervention for an allergy. Unfortunately we have to jump through hoops with doctors and often have to fight to get full treatment

I think there may only be one brand that makes 25mcg tablets so you might end up having to cut tablets, but don't worry many of us ending up doing that. The 25mcg tablets I think are a bad brand for fillers. Hopefully you will be given a full increase of 25mcg per day and take 50mcg tablets instead.

[Ladybex in reply to SilverAvocado]

Ok cheers for that ... will do as you say.. the brand I’m on is WICKHARDT .. they only do 25mcg.. also took a photo of my eyes red and swollen after the increased dose so will show her that. Will let you know when I have update and thank you again.. so nice that you actually understand what I have been saying .. sending hugs 🤗

[humanbean in reply to Ladybex]

You might find this thread of interest.

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

If you wanted to pass on any of the info to your doctor I would suggest looking at the sources for the info rather than thread itself. (The sources are linked to within the thread.)

[Ladybex in reply to humanbean]

👍

[SilverAvocado in reply to Ladybex]

Good luck Ladybex! With the help of the photo I think you should argue that you had an intolerance to something in the tablets, not to thyroid hormone, and hopefully you will be given a different brand. Then if you go away and have problems with the different brand, go back and complain again, there are more things to try.

Don't accept it if they say to don't need the thyroid hormone or were overdosed, your results from the Summer show you badly need this hormone!

[Ladybex in reply to SilverAvocado]

Will do hun - you have made me feel better already as been so anxious ...

[SilverAvocado in reply to Ladybex]

I'm really glad I could help Hopefully the GP appointment will go well. x

[Ladybex in reply to SilverAvocado]

Hi there I have put the new blood test results up and new GP says I need Folic Acid but no increase in Levo ? When you get time could you take a look as your opinion means s lot to me 😊