How to Read Thyroid Lab Results

[Mollygcarrigan]

Good Evening Everyone,

I just got my thyroid lab results back and since I’m military I really don’t trust my doctors, so if anyone on here is an expert at reading results, I would rather have you enlighten me than google! I trust you all more:

T3: 2.77

T4: 1.23

T3 Total: 0.936

Testosterone: 36.97

V B12: 544

VD: 29.7

Folate: 15.1

Ferritin: 24.92

Iron: 20

I appreciate the feedback!

[Heloise]

Hi Molly, we assume you are hypothyroid but the only comment I can make is that your TSH should be under 2.0 since the range for that is fairly universal. The others have to be assessed according to where they fall in the range and you haven't included any ranges. Your FT3 and FT4 should be in the upper third of the range but it also depends on what you are taking as in Levo, NDT, or T3 which may change results. I can say your D is most likely deficient. This might help: stopthethyroidmadness.com/l...

[Mollygcarrigan in reply to Heloise]

Thank you! I had a thyroidectomy last year. Also, none of that made sense. Haha here come the stupid questions:

is testing for TSH separate? It’s not on my labs, or is that just the T4 and T3?

What ranges? How do I figure that out?

I’m on 88mcg of Levothyroxine and 10mcg of Cytomel.

Thank you Heloise!! Appreciate your help. I feel stupid, sorry. I should probably know this, but military doctors are not the best.

[Heloise in reply to Mollygcarrigan]

No problem at all. I'm puzzled that there is no TSH since doctors often ONLY use TSH to determine your thyroid status so I'm happy you have FT3 and 4. What are you looking at? A lab report? the ranges should be in parentheses next to the result.

How are you feeling? Did you have Graves?

I'm glad you are getting both Levo and Cytomel since your thyroid produces both.

[Mollygcarrigan in reply to Heloise]

Looking at recent lab results and TSH is not provided along with no ranges. Typical, another thing to yell at when I go back to the office.

Umm, I’m exhausted and was having severe abdominal pain (ie bloating) so I cut out all gluten, dairy and processed foods, And that seem to have helped. But this is really no way to live to be honest. I can do this strict diet because I’m pretty regimented being in the military but it’s no fun. Lol! I love the occasional glass of wine and I really just want a big piece of cake!! Hahaha!

[Heloise in reply to Mollygcarrigan]

Can you find out the lab, maybe you can locate what ranges they use since every lab has their own.

There are a number of things going on in your gut which you can modify and you may find some substitutions that work for you and you won't feel deprived

You may get more responses in the morning but they will want to see ranges as well.

[Mollygcarrigan in reply to Heloise]

Thanks again! I’m in the California. Sorry to have kept you up.

[Lora7again]

Is the first result really your TSH? Some of those vitamin levels look low to me but I need the ranges before I can comment.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

We always need the ranges on blood test results

Different labs have different ranges

[Mollygcarrigan in reply to SlowDragon]

I didn’t receive ranges. Hmm

[humanbean]

I'm basing this comment on UK reference ranges that I'm familiar with, so it might be completely wrong. Your ferritin (iron stores) looks to be too low. The iron figure looks very close to optimal (based on UK ranges). You might feel less fatigued if you raised your iron or ferritin levels generally. For info on optimal levels of iron see this link :

rt3-adrenals.org/Iron_test_...

In someone whose body can deal with iron properly, the iron they consume in their food will find its way into the blood stream and then into ferritin. Iron is moved from the bloodstream into ferritin and from ferritin into the bloodstream as and when needed and this movement of iron goes on all the time. There is no way of taking any iron product and saying "this iron must go into ferritin". Your body makes the decision.

Some people can't handle iron well and they end up with too much in the blood and not enough in storage. Or they end up with lots in storage and hardly any in the blood. Both of these situations suggest an underlying problem that needs to be fixed before supplementing iron.

...

This is worth reading :

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Many people on this forum hope to get their ferritin up to mid-range. However, anyone who supplements iron MUST get regular testing (every 6 - 8 weeks would be ideal) done for both iron and ferritin. Too much iron is poisonous and there is no easy way of removing excess levels of iron from the body apart from blood donation - and then they throw the blood away if the iron level is too high.

....

It is essential to know the reference ranges for tests. If I make up a test as an example... Let's say that testing for X your result shows you have a level of 30.

If the reference range is 0 - 15 then a result of 30 is above range.

If the ref range is 20 - 32 then a result of 30 is high in range.

If the ref range is 20 - 40 then a result of 30 is mid-range.

If the ref range is 35 - 50 then a result of 30 is below range.

If all you know is that the level of X is 30, but you don't know the reference range then you cannot tell if a level of 30 is below range/deficient, low in range, mid-range, high in range, or over the range/possibly even toxic. Without the ref range a result is essentially a random number of little or no use.

[Heloise in reply to humanbean]

Such a good teacher you are, hb. She is in CA so won't see this for a while.

[humanbean in reply to Heloise]

Thank you.

[Mollygcarrigan in reply to humanbean]

Agreed, thank you for the explanation!!