FT3 & FT4 on Levo and NDT

[AleB]

Dear all, since my last post I have felt extremely unwell. Granted my Ferritin is low again at 15 (increased ferrous fumarate to x 3 per day). I asked doctor last week to test T4 and T3 and explained situation re thyroid meds! So the lab tested them, as follows:

FT3 3.3 range 3.1 - 6.8

FT4 11.6 range 10 - 24.5

Taken on 17/01/20

TSH 0.08 range 0.2 - 5.5 taken on 24/12/19 (lab did not test FT3 and FT4 because they said TSH was abnormal).

At present I am extremely tired, frequent trips to bathroom (every 20 mins). Usual aches and pains, hair loss. I know I need to increase but until my ferritin climbs, I'm stuck - I feel the Levo is just being dumped in my blood because of this. Could anybody offer some advice please.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Taking any medication that contains T3 will invariably suppress TSH

FT4 and FT3 are both very low

Dramatic change from last test 4 months ago

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[AleB in reply to SlowDragon]

Hello SlowDraggon, thanks for your reply. Problem is I really can't say if after 4 months on 1 and1/4 NDT and 50mcg of Levothyroxine is right for me, yes the Tsh is lower but the FT3 and FT4 are still not much changed. I noticed just a few weeks prior to Christmas I was tired again and another UTI... Could this be because of low Ferritin? I do have conversion issues, so not sure what to do, when I try to increase NDT I run into problems owing to never quite getting the iron at a level for the NDT to work. I've certainly given NDT a fair shot at 11 months.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AleB]

Ideally all vitamins need to be optimal before considering adding any T3 or NDT

I didn't get on well with NDT

Many of us need very fine tuning of FT4 and FT3

Your results suggest under medication...

.but increasing dose of NDT can be problematic

[AleB in reply to SlowDragon]

Could I swap to Levo and trial T3... I have some T3 from last Feb. Just not sure what dose of Levo and how much T3... 75mcg Levo and 15mg of T3? Not sure this is enough, but synthetic T3 is stronger than the T3 in NDT. Before I was put on NDT I was taking 107mcg of Levo, but not converting well!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to AleB]

Suggest you put up a post asking advice from members on how to change from NDT to Levothyroxine

It's many years since I tried NDT

[AleB in reply to SlowDragon]

Will do, thank you for your honesty. 😊. It's a rocky road, let's hope we all get there in the end. I can't thank this forum enough, it means a lot knowing there is advice from people like yourself who understand how tricky this condition can be.