Medication Levels Query

[AnnaBeth]

Just had Thyroid bloods done, I requested after what felt like hyper symptoms.

I am on 75mg of Levo x4 days a week and 100mg of Levo x3 days a week alongside Metavive 1 x1 capsule daily.

I’ve felt so much better on metavive so want to continue have been doing it via a private dr and not my gp who I suspect will not be keen.

These are my results, should I further reduce Levo?

Do they look ok?

I didn’t take any meds morning of the blood test.

I am not gluten free, I also have high blood sugar although not diabetic. I will be going keto for blood sugar soon.

TSH 0.3 (0.3 - 3.94)

T4 14.8 pmol (12.3 - 20.2 )

Thanks to anyone who is able to reply you all do such a supportive job!

[shaws Administrator]

Hi AnnaBeth. Do you have the ranges for your results? These figures are in brackets. The reason being that labs differ and so do the ranges and it is the ranges that enable members to respond. The most important (and rarely tested) are the 'Frees' i.e. FT4 and FT3.

To edit you can press the down arrow next to 'more'.

[AnnaBeth in reply to shaws]

Done and thank you!

[shaws Administrator in reply to AnnaBeth]

Your TSH is good but T4 low. T4 also known as levothyroxine and is an inactive hormone and it has to convert to sufficient T3. T3 being the Active hormone required in our millions of T3 receptor cells.I believe you need an increase in dose but GP may not - in fact he might think your dose is too high if he only looks at your TSH result.

I should also state I'm not medically qualified but had to diagnose myself as no doctor or specialist had a clue of what was causing me to be very unwell.

The most informative are Free T4 and Free T3 blood tests and I'll give a link from Thyroiduk and it is the 3 staff there who do lots of research and work to try to change attitudes of the medical professionals.

Ask GP to test B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate - everything should be optimal.

thyroiduk.org/signs-symptom...

thyroiduk.org/signs-symptoms/

[AnnaBeth in reply to shaws]

Thank you.

I’ll give these results to the private dr who may increase the metavive I imagine which should help.

I don’t think my TSH has ever been so low so maybe that’s why I feel good!

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

AnnaBeth

When on Metavive, although it is a thyroid glandular with no declared hormone content, it is treated the same as NDT as far as testing is concerned. It is essential to include FT3 test with TSH and FT4 and last dose of Metavive should be 8-12 hours before the test, Levo should be 24 hours before the test.

From those results that you have given, reducing your Levo will take your FT4 fairly close to the bottom of the range and that may not be a good place for you, it's already only 31.65% through range so going lower may make you feel worse.

But if you feel "so much better" why would you want to reduce your Levo anyway?

[AnnaBeth in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you, metavive and Levo were 24 hours before as I only take both once a day and both in the morning.

I thought I may have to reduce Levo further as I did go hyper when metavive was added in but that was due to too high a dose to start with.

I’ll get the vitamins etc tested too prob privately, GP hasn’t come back re:results so I guess they are happy as they are speedy when not happy with blood results.

My TSH has not to my knowledge been that low before so maybe that’s why I feel well!

[shaws Administrator in reply to AnnaBeth]

Re your low TSH, I also think that is the reason you feel well. Unfortunately doctors seem to think that if it is 'anywhere' in the range we're on a sufficient dose and get worried if it is low. It's a pity that most professionals are very poorly trained as they don't seem to know that the TSH is not a thyroid hormone but from the pituitary gland. Free T4 and Free T3 are rarely tested but give far more information. The very best way to judge if the dose is 'optimum' is 'how we 'feel' rather than results of tests.

[AnnaBeth in reply to shaws]

Perfect thank you.

I’ve not been well for such a long time I forgot what we’ll felt like the change has been significant. Interested in the low TSH as I’ve always thought it seemed ok but can see the difference.

I’m going to chart symptoms as I can see some things I didn’t know the cause for were definitely thyroid based as have recently vanished e.g v dry skin.