Thyroid results

[Clarabella72]

Hi all these are the results from the hospital last week

TSH 0.23

T4 20

They aid that I needed to drop down my thyroxine to 100 from 125 however I am feeling absolutely dreadful like my thyroid is under active. I have just spoken with the pharmacist and she said that it looks like my thyroid is under active not over!

I’m so confused because I certainly feel like I’m under active and have all the symptoms of that.

[Hibs1]

You need to put the ranges in for the tests for people to comment🌞

[Clarabella72 in reply to Hibs1]

Oh sorry I don’t know what that is that’s all I have it’s on my discharge sheet that’s all it says sorry.

[Hibs1 in reply to Clarabella72]

You could maybe phone up and ask for the ranges for the two tests at the hospital?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

We must have reference ranges to interpret results as these vary from lab to lab. You could phone the hospital lab or if your GP surgery uses that hospital for tests normally then ask for a print out of previous results, the ranges will be on there.

However, that said, from ranges we see here then it's very likely that your FT4 range will be similar to the following:

7-17

9-19

11-23

12-22

TSH range doesn't matter so much as it's usually very similar and often something like 0.2-4.2.

I have just spoken with the pharmacist and she said that it looks like my thyroid is under active not over!

I'm afraid the pharmacist hasn't got a clue. To be underactive your TSH would be high in range and the FT4 would be low in range. With your TSH at 0.23 that's very low, and with your FT4 at 20 then it's definitely not going to be low in range.

They aid that I needed to drop down my thyroxine to 100 from 125 however I am feeling absolutely dreadful like my thyroid is under active.

Obviously you need the FT4 range to see if you are over range, but advice here when only TSH and FT4 results are given is not to reduce your dose of Levo until TSH, FT4 and FT3 are all tested at the same time. It's the FT3 result that tells you if you are over medicated. You can have a high FT4 but a low FT3, and it will be low FT3 that is causing symptoms. Levo is T4, a storage hormone, and T4 converts to T3 which is the active hormone, so FT3 result is the most important one of all. Unfortunately this very vital information seems to bypass most, if not all doctors and endocrinologisits.

[Clarabella72 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you so much for the advice I think I need to up my thyroxine to the 125mg that I have taken for years.

[greygoose]

Even with the ranges, those two tests would not be enough to tell you if you are over-medicated. I suspect your doctor is just looking at the TSH, which is low - possibly under-range? But, the most important number is the FT3, which they haven't even tested. You are only over-medicated if your FT3 is well over-range. Just refuse to reduce your dose until they've tested the FT3.

It could very well be that although your TSH is low, and your FT4 looks good, you are not converting all that T4 into T3 very well, and are therefore still hypo.

[Clarabella72 in reply to greygoose]

Thanks again ❤️

[greygoose in reply to Clarabella72]

You're welcome.