Thyroid results and few questions

[CBann]

Hi all,

Hope you are all doing well and not struggling too much in this heat.

I wonder whether anyone could shed any light on my results. At the moment I’ve got a strange mix of hypo and hyper symptoms:

T4 20.3 (12-22)

T3 6.2 (3.2-6.8)

I was previously on 3.5 grains of NDT and now on T4 150 and T3 43.75. Having had another look at STTM, I am now thinking my T4 is perhaps a little high and I could come down a bit, but by how much? Could split my 50 T4 pills in half and go to 125? I seem to recall feeling good at around 18 free T4, and my T3 fairly high in range.

Alternatively am wondering whether it’s an adrenal issue and I could go through the process of supporting those. Previously went through the process following guidance from a well know alternative medicine thyroid specialist. So could do it again,

Also wanted to share some good news that I had today. my GP actually agreed to refer me to an NHS endo, on the account that I need help to get back to normal following coming off privately prescribed nature throid. I fessed up to adding self sourced T3 to the T4 script she gave me because I couldn’t cope without it. I think she therefore possibly felt she couldn’t really advise me further considering I am still not feeling great.

Anyway I know this is still only step one of a long process for a possible T3 script but of the many years I have had my thyroid issue I haven’t managed to get an NHS endo appointment so am going to give it a shot anyway. Next step a sympathetic/knowledgeable endo. Wish me luck.

Cheryl

[greygoose]

How much T4 one needs is a very personal thing. You will only know how much you need by trial and error. So, try reducing it, and see how you go.

That's a lot of T3 your taking just to get your FT3 up to not-quite top of the range. How do you take your T3? Do you split it? Do you always take it on an empty stomach, away from food, medication and supplements, just like levo? Strange that you appear to be absorbing the levo well, but not the T3.

I fessed up to adding self sourced T3 to the T4 script she gave me

Oh, goodness! You make yourself sound like a naughty schoolgirl that's done something wrong! You have a perfect right to take over your own treatment if your doctor is not capable of doing her job correctly. So, don't use words like 'confess'. You informed her, that's all.

GP actually agreed to refer me to an NHS endo, on the account that I need help to get back to normal following coming off privately prescribed nature throid.

And, what exactly makes her think that you weren't 'normal' on NDT? That is a terrible attitude to take. NDT has been around for over 100 years and has restored a lot of people back to health.

So, how did you feel on NDT? On 3.5 grains you were taking a lot less T3 than you are now - 31.5 mcg. Did you still feel hypo on that?

I’ve got a strange mix of hypo and hyper symptoms:

T4 20.3 (12-22)

T3 6.2 (3.2-6.8)

What are your symptoms? Because there's nothing hypo about your results. But, you might be one of these people that needs a very high level of T3 in the blood to get enough into the cells.

Alternatively am wondering whether it’s an adrenal issue and I could go through the process of supporting those. Previously went through the process following guidance from a well know alternative medicine thyroid specialist.

I think, if I were you, I'd want to test my cortisol first, to see exactly where they are. The 24 hour saliva cortisol test is best, but you won't get it on the NHS, I'm afraid.

I would be very interested to know what this support process is. Could you perhaps give us a name, and a link to his process?

Good luck!

[CBann in reply to greygoose]

Sorry I replied to my original post rather than your - what a twit I am. Would you mind having a read of my reply to myself hahaha 😂

[CBann]

Thanks so much for your reply greygoose.

I’ll give it a go at 25mcg less and see how I feel.

I split my T3 into 3: 6am, 12pm and 4pm. always no food an hour before or after. And I take my supplements (when I remember) about 4hrs after my last dose. I did wonder whether the dose was quite high, perhaps I am not absorbing the Greece unipharma brand quite as well as I may do others. I tried sigma Pharma for 2 days and felt awful, really hyper. I thought I may have reacted to something in them as I had a pretty sore tummy and terrible water retention - rather than it being too higher dose/more effective.

Haha I do feel like I am naughty schoolgirl not doing as they have asked me, but ultimately it’s us who deal with the consequences not them.

Sorry I probably didn’t explain properly. I was normal on NDT for years; had a baby and generally got on with life. But now the NDT has been reformulated (May 19) and istopped working for me. I didn’t realise until this feb that i had hit the bottom. All hypo symptoms back. This is why I think my adrenals could be stressed, as it took me a while to realise what had happened.

My symptoms are: internal shakiness, water retention, bloated lower abdomen, hair falling out (which is stressing me out), not sleeping particularly well, moments of high energy and low energy, slightly anxious, extremely focussed to having a foggy head and not being able to concentrate... bit of mess to be honest 🙄

Can you give me a bit more info on what the cortisol test will tell me? And how much I should be paying for it?

When I wasn’t very well first time round I had an appointment with Dr Peatfield (wasn’t sure I was aloud to name names and didn’t want my post blocked). The process is in his book and based on his assessment ( no testing) he told me to take Adrenavive II, lower my NDT dose for a while and then bring it back up slowly. I can’t remember if this was the thing that sorted me out last time as I tried so many things. But I’m not too worried about giving it another go but would def bring the T3 right down first.

Looking forward to hearing your thought on my situation now you have more info.

Thanks

Cheryl

[greygoose in reply to CBann]

My symptoms are: internal shakiness, water retention, bloated lower abdomen, hair falling out (which is stressing me out), not sleeping particularly well, moments of high energy and low energy, slightly anxious, extremely focussed to having a foggy head and not being able to concentrate

Well, they all sound like hypo symptoms.

I did wonder whether the dose was quite high, perhaps I am not absorbing the Greece unipharma brand quite as well as I may do others

I'm not sure it works like that. There maybe slight differences in the strength of different brands, but I don't think any one tends to be better absorbed than others. I've never heard it said.

Have you ever tried taking all your T3 in one go? That does work better for some people.

I understand about the reformulation of your NDT, and it not working so well. Same thing happened to me with Armour. So sad.

Can you give me a bit more info on what the cortisol test will tell me? And how much I should be paying for it?

With the 24 hour saliva cortisol test you take samples of your saliva four times out of the 24 hours. This will tell you if your levels of cortisol are following the normal curve. Cortisol should be highest early morning, to get you out of bed and ready for the day. It then drops throughout the day, being at it's lowest at bedtime, so that you can sleep.

When the adrenals start to weary, they will have trouble making their quota early morning, but keep trying throughout the day until they finally manage it. Meaning that cortisol is lowest early morning, when it should be highest, and gets slowly higher throughout the day, ending up being high at bedtime and stopping you sleeping.

I'm afraid I have no idea about prices.

wasn’t sure I was aloud to name names and didn’t want my post blocked

You can mention names on here, as long as you don't say anything bad about the person. It's ok to say, for example, that you're following Dr Peatfield's protocol to support adrenals. I'm afraid I haven't read his book. But, if it worked for you, then no reason why you shouldn't try it again.

[CBann in reply to greygoose]

Thanks again for getting back to me.

But I don’t understand how I could be hypo considering my results?

What did you do when armour was reformulated? It so frustrating, isn’t it. I was doing so well.. and now back at square one.

Never tried all in one go with the dose - bit worried about it since the dose is quite high

Ok thanks for the info about the test, I’ll use that as a guide if I do it. I might just chance the Adrenavive again anyway. Would only be another bottle of pills in the bin if it goes badly. As will raise it slowly

[greygoose in reply to CBann]

But I don’t understand how I could be hypo considering my results?

A blood test only tells you what's in the blood. It doesn't tell you how much is getting into the cells. And, thyroid hormone doesn't do anything in the blood, it has to get into the cells. If you have some degree of resistance to thyroid hormone - RTH - then you can have good levels in the blood but still be hypo.

What did you do when armour was reformulated?

I tried as many other brands as I possibly could, but none of them suited me. I was just getting worse and worse. And, the brain-fog got so bad, I was incapable of understanding that the thing to do was to come off NDT altogether! Plus, I had a doctor who insisted it had to work, and to keep on trying. But, eventually, in a moment of clarity, I got the message, stopped the NDT and went onto T3 only.

Never tried all in one go with the dose - bit worried about it since the dose is quite high

It's higher than average, certainly, but far from the highest dose I've ever seen! I myself was on 225 mcg for a short while, with no hyper symptoms. Besides, you don't seem to be absorbing much of it. But, the thing is, if you do have RTH, taking it all in one go, and flooding the receptors, gives you a better chance of getting it into the cells. Worth a try, but stop if you don't feel good on it.

[CBann in reply to greygoose]

So the only thing to do if I do have RTH is to increase? And try taking in one go?

Why did you choose T3 only rather than a combo?

I was going to try other brand of NDT but it appears that all but Thai ones have been reformulated. I don’t really want to be reliant on a Thai drug since i couldn’t get hold of any recently and I don’t want to be left in that position

[greygoose in reply to CBann]

As there's no test to find out if you do have RTH, I would try taking it all in one go, first, before increasing the dose, and see if that helps at all.

The reason I chose T3 only is a long, boring story! lol But, basically, it was because I'd started on T4 only and got up to 200 mcg with no improvement - actually feeling worse! Tried the combo which was better but far from perfect. Got a new doctor who said Armour was THE only way to go - he took it himself - so started on that. Then, when that went pear-shaped, decided I didn't want to take any form of T4, so all that was left was T3 only.

[CBann in reply to greygoose]

Do you know if there is anything else I can do to help RTH? Supplements etc?

Ah I see. Thyroid issues are usually long horrible stories. But your feeling ok now then? Any residual symptoms?

[greygoose in reply to CBann]

Not that I know of, no. I've never heard anyone mention anything that can be done.

I'm feeling OKish. Certainly not 100% normal, but then I don't really know what that is. I've been hypo since I was about 8 years old, but didn't get diagnosed until I was 55. I've had so many misdiagnoses and mistreatments, that it's hardly surprising I still have symptoms. But, I don't think I'm typical in any way. I'm just better on T3 only that at any time since I was first put on levo, 20 years ago.

[CBann in reply to greygoose]

Wow that is a long time not to be diagnosed. It took my acupuncture therapist to say to me you should get your thyroid tested. I didn’t even know what a thyroid was. I’d been to the docs countless times with all sorts of symptoms. It made my blood boil when I finally was diagnosed and they said they wanted me to take antidepressants but wouldn’t recognise that I wasn’t converting properly 🙄.

Anyway thanks for all the advice

[greygoose in reply to CBann]

You're welcome.