2nd blood results since diagnosis

[Bubble214]

Had another set of bloods come back today, back in December my medication was reduced from 7 days to taking Levo 6 days a week. Doctor has now said I need to increase my meds back to 7 days as my levels has increased significantly meaning my thyroid is not releasing enough hormones. I have noticed such a difference especially the last month with my tiredness, really bad headaches which wake me up in the night and a general lack of interest in anything.

Listen to your body guys it does speak volumes! Just hoping they can get it all sorted, anyone can offer any advice has this happened to others?

[greygoose]

Get print-outs of your actual results, names of tests and ranges. You need to know exactly what is being tested and exactly what the results were. Sounds like your doctor is dosing by the TSH, and that is wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Bubble214 in reply to greygoose]

Okay I will request this - thanks. Why is dosing by TSH wrong?

[greygoose in reply to Bubble214]

Because it's not a thyroid hormone. It's a pituitary hormones. The thyroid hormones are T4 and T3.

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, a chemical message from the pituitary to the thyroid to tell it to make more hormone when it senses that the level is low. When the level rises, the pituitary makes less TSH. So, doctors think the TSH tells them all they need to know. But, it doesn't. When you're hypo, the feed-back loop is compromised, and the TSH can go quite low without the T4 and T3 going high enough to make you well. Also, it can be affected by other things, like the time of day. TSH is always highest early morning and drops throughout the day. But, doctors don't see to be able to understand that, and do tests at 5 pm, then complain because your TSH is too low. Well, of course it is at 5 pm!

Ideally, they should dose by the FT3, but… However, they should at least do the FT4. But, personally, I would never accept to lower my dose unless the FT3 had been tested and found to be over-range - well over-range - because you're only over-medicated if it is.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

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healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

This shows

You have high thyroid antibodies, which confirms autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto’s

TSH was 0.99

Ft4 20 (12-22)

This did NOT show you were over treated

No Ft3 test

Ferritin was low

No test for B12, folate and vitamin D

Bloods should be retested 6-8 weeks after any dose change

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially as you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

Ask GP to test vitamin D, folate and B12 levels

Plus full iron panel test for anaemia

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .

Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)

Private tests are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3 or antibodies

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

For thyroid including antibodies and vitamins

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have special offers, Medichecks usually have offers on Thursdays, Blue Horizon its more random

Dose of levothyroxine should NEVER be reduced without FULL thyroid and vitamin testing. If Ft3 was not above top of range you were not over treated

Low vitamin levels frequently makes conversion of Ft4 to Ft3 poor. This leads to high Ft4 and low TSH

Never ever take levothyroxine in 24 hours before blood test