Can thyroid starting working a little bit?

[Sheila46]

I have had an under active thyroid for 11 years and was very bad when finally diagnosed TSH60 and a barely detectable Free T4 and antibodies 60. I have been stable through this time on between 75-100mcg. Lately I have been unwell with ongoing nausea and optic migraines (no headache pain) my last few results have been all over the place

March: TSH 6.4 dose increased from 75 to 100mcg no Free T4 taken

June 19: TSH 7.55 FreeT4 18.9

Doctor wanted to increase my dose again to 125mcg but I refused and was retested in

Sept: 19 TSH 0.31 (12-22) Free T4 25.3 (0.27-4). I have dropped the 100 to 88mcg but still don’t feel right. Is it possible that my thyroid has started to work on its own (a bit) and I’m on too higher dose?

Any help or ideas should be appreciated.

Thank you

[greygoose]

Very, very doubtful if you have Hashi's. But, there are two other possibilities:

* as you have Hashi's, you could be having a Hashi's swing. Levels do tend to jump around with Hashi's.

* your conversion has got worse, and the FT4 is rising because it's not being converted to T3. But, you would have to have your FT3 tested to know that.

Dropping your dose without testing the FT3 will doubtless result in your FT3 dropping, too. Which will make you more hypo. Something doctors fail to understand.

[Sheila46 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you for the reply, I hadn’t realised about FT3 and will ‘treat myself’ to a thyroid profile test in Jan to see if that makes things clear.

[greygoose in reply to Sheila46]

That sounds like a very good idea.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

As you have Hashimoto's low vitamin levels are extremely common

Recent antibiotics will have wiped out gut flora too

As per reply to previous post

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Just testing TSH and FT4 is completely inadequate

Conversion of FT4 to FT3 gets worse the longer we are on Levothyroxine

Low vitamin levels become more likely the older we get....B12 especially

What vitamin supplements do you currently take?

When were vitamin levels last tested?

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Come back with new post once you get results

[Sheila46 in reply to SlowDragon]

I doubt my GP will do a full profile and I haven’t had my vitamin levels tested in years so will have a private test in Jan and post the results. I don’t take any vitamins but have a really healthy balanced diet which I guess isn’t going to be quite enough. I will buy the vitamins you have suggested to see if things improve.

Thank you

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Sheila46]

Don't start supplementing anything until you have had blood test results back

If levels are extremely low GP may need to do further testing first

Hashimoto's affect how well or badly we absorb what nutrients we eat. So it has little to do with how good your diet is

Extremely common to be gluten intolerant too.