Need some advice on thyroid

[shazthescot]

Hi i have had underctive thyroid for about 7 years.

I am on 100mg levothyroxine this was increased from 75mg about a year ago .

Since then been feeling good and i have been on strict diet and lost 4 stone.

Past 3 months have been feeling tired all the time waking up night sweats ,nightmares .feel agitated a lot and hair falling out at alarming rate. My blood results since then show tsh at 0.2 and 0.6..

I stopped the diet before this and been eating healthy to keep it off.

Docs are only interested in tsh so say everything is fine.

Anyone any advice

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

shazthescot

Docs are only interested in tsh so say everything is fine.

Clearly everything is not fine. You really need a full thyroid/vitamin panel and as you probably wont get everything tested with your GP then you may wish to do what hundreds of us here do and that is a private test with one of our recommended labs, you will then have a full picture and may discover where your problem lies.

Medichecks Thyroid Check ULTRAVIT medichecks.com/thyroid-func... You can use code THYROIDUK for a 10% discount on any test not on special offer

or

Blue Horizon Thyroid Check PLUS ELEVEN bluehorizonmedicals.co.uk/t...

Both tests include the full thyroid and vitamin panel. They are basically the same test but with the following small differences:

For the fingerprick test:

Blue Horizon requires 1 x microtainer of blood (0.8ml), Medichecks requires 2 x microtainers (total 1.6ml)

Blue Horizon includes Total T4 (can be useful but not essential). Medichecks doesn't include this test.

B12 - Blue Horizon does Total B12 which measures bound and unbound (active) B12 but doesn't give a separate result for each. Medichecks does Active B12.

Total B12 shows the total B12 in the blood. Active B12 shows what's available to be taken up by the cells. You can have a reasonable level of Total B12 but a poor level of Active B12. (Personally, I would go for the Active B12 test.)

When doing thyroid tests, we advise:

* Book the first appointment of the morning, or with private tests at home no later than 9am. This is because TSH is highest early morning and lowers throughout the day. If we are looking for a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, or looking for an increase in dose or to avoid a reduction then we need TSH to be as high as possible.

* Fast overnight - have your evening meal/supper as normal the night before but delay breakfast on the day of the test and drink water only until after the blood draw. Eating may lower TSH, coffee affects TSH so it's possible that other caffeine containing drinks may also affect TSH.

* If taking thyroid hormone replacement, last dose of Levo should be 24 hours before blood draw, if taking NDT or T3 then last dose should be 8-12 hours before blood draw. Adjust timing the day before if necessary. This avoids measuring hormone levels at their peak after ingestion of hormone replacement. Take your thyroid meds after the blood draw. Taking your dose too close to the blood draw will give false high results, leaving any longer gap will give false low results.

* If you take Biotin or a B Complex containing Biotin (B7), leave this off for 7 days before any blood test. This is because if Biotin is used in the testing procedure it can give false results (most labs use Biotin in the assay).

These are patient to patient tips which we don't discuss with doctors or phlebotomists.

[Lora7again]

I have said this before several times .... that is a low dose unless you are elderly like my Dad who is 78 and that suits him. Also we need to see what your T4 and T3 levels are because the TSH alone is not a good indication of thyroid function.