Hello all, I am writing hoping for some help!! Im actually quite desperate to be honest. I had a total Thyroidectomy in April 2018 and have continued to gain weight steadily since then. I eat healthy meals, always have. I have just been trying the low carb high fat diet as this has had limited results for me in the past but after doing this for a month I have not lost a single pound. I have just got my blood results from the Endo and they are as follows:
TSH 0.2
Free T4 15
I understand that this is within the normal range? And so my endo and gp aren't interested in helping with the weight gain. I take 100mg and 125mg respectively every day. I am very very depressed as I dont know what to do. I am 52.
Please help with any advice.
Thanks
Written by
ogs2003
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Can you add the reference ranges for your results, ranges vary from lab to lab so we need the ranges from your lab to be able to interpret your results.
Was FT3 tested? That's the most important test and the one rarely done. Testing FT3 at the same time as FT4 tells us if we convert T4 to T3 well enough. Low T3 causes symptoms and makes weight loss difficult.
If you can't get all the tests done at the same time with your doctor or endocrinologist, I would suggest you do what hundreds of us here have to do and that is private testing with one of our recommended labs.
If you just want TSH, FT4 and FT3 then MonitorMyHealth is the cheapest at £29 and as it's done by an NHS lab then it should be acceptable by your doctor because it's the NHS who introduced this test:
Have you had vitamins tested - Vit D, B12, Folate and Ferritin? If not it's important that these are at optimal levels for thyroid hormone to work properly and good conversion to take place. If you haven't had them done you might want to consider a full thyroid/vitamin panel from one of our recommended labs who both offer the test as a fingerprick test or venous blood draw (costs extra):
Medichecks Thyroid Check ULTRAVITmedichecks.com/thyroid-func... You can use code THYROIDUK for a 10% discount on any test not on special offer
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.
Can I please ask why you had your thyroid removed ?
It would help if you gave us the reference ranges but just think these results look like you need an increase in Levothyroxine as most ranges are 10-22 or some where around those numbers.
An increase in Levothyroxine - T4 - should then increase your T3 blood test reading, which we don't have, and it is the T3 that drives your metabolism, and your mental, physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual wellbeing and your inner central heating system.
A fully functioning working thyroid would be supporting you on a daily basis with approximately 100 T4 + 10 T3. I just think that if there has been a medical intervention and the thyroid surgically removed or ablated with RAI that both these vital hormones should be on the patient's prescription for if, and probably when needed.
Some people can get by on T4 alone: some people at some point in time simply stop converting the T4 into T3 : and some people simply need both these essential hormones dosed and monitored to bring the two hormones into balance and to a level of wellness acceptable to the patient.
Your body needs to convert the T4 into T3 : this can be compromised if your vitamins and minerals are not optimal and so it's essential to get ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D tested and supplemented if not at good levels in the ranges.
The body runs on T3 and understand the average person uses about 50 T3 daily to function.
At this point in time it may just be a case of your fully optimising T4 and increasing your Levothyroxine until it is higher in the range, which in turn should increase your T3 and it is the T3 ( lack of or too much ) that is expressed in the symptoms you may experience.
Without more details it's very much a guessing game, but living without a thyroid isn't easy and you might like to read up a bit so as to take back some control of your own health.
Your Thyroid and How To Keep It Healthy is written by a doctor who has hypothyroidism.
Barry Durrant - Peatfield writes in an easy to understand way and whilst we may not now have this little amazing, major gland we do need to know all that it dos so we can try and compensate accordingly.
I'm with Graves Disease post thyroid ablation with RAI back in 2005.
I was like you. Could not lose a pound in 7 months. Then started NDT on Jan 1st and have lost 7lbs already doing just the same! Its quite sad how people dont understand how metabolism really does matter. Good luck with the weight loss x
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