Feeling a bit lost

[Bohogirl22]

Hello I’m new to this forum. I was told the other day that my blood tests came back borderline underactive, however I don’t have any of the symptoms, in fact I’m on the go all the time, loads of energy, jittery and sweaty, which to my understanding all point towards overactive. Does anyone know if you can swing between the two or has anyone experienced hyper symptoms with hypo blood results? I’m also worried this is going to impact on my fertility as I’d like to have children in the near future. Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated. My doctor said I don’t need meds just yet, however should I let it get worse when it can be prevented now? My results were: TSH 4.37 and FT4 10.1 Thank you.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Welcome to the forum

Does your GP know you are considering pregnancy in near future

Because you will need to be settled and established on levothyroxine before considering TTC

Being hypothyroid affects fertility and TSH over 2.5 increases risk of miscarriage

Please add the ranges on these results, the figures in brackets after each result...if you have them

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 if you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies

About 90% of primary hypothyroidism is due to autoimmune thyroid disease

Ask GP to test vitamin levels and thyroid antibodies

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 .

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 as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins

List of private testing options

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin

medichecks.com/products/thy...

Medichecks often have special offers, if order on Thursdays

Thriva Thyroid plus vitamins

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Before considering TTC thyroid levels need to be stable and vitamin levels tested and optimal

verywellhealth.com/infertil...

Pregnancy guidelines

thyroiduk.org/having-a-baby-2/

See flow chart at top of page 2

gp-update.co.uk/files/docs/...

See pages 7&8

btf-thyroid.org/Handlers/Do...

[HashiFedUp]

Assuming your TSH is 0.2 - 4.2 that would make you over the upper limit and hypothyroid. You need to start on Levo before trying for a baby to lower your score down. It is not unusual to have similar symptoms whether you’re hypo or hyper. I hear about this from many on the forum. So you probably have mild symptoms right now but it may well get worse. Also please remember that having a baby can trigger hypothyroidism or make it worse anyway - thats what happened with me when I had my son - and it made looking after him very challenging as I remained undiagnosed until he was about 2 yo. So get acknowledgement of your hypothyroidism now and get treatment.

[silverfox7]

Hi Welcome to the forum! You will get lots of help but it can take time to get stable. Nothing works quickly with your thyroid but you should get there. Keep asking about anything you don’t understand , many will give help and advice. Any blood tests I would ask for and keep as useful to look back on and also plot your progress. Anytime after testing you can post your experience or let us see you readings so we can help explain what they mean BUT always include the ranges, often in brackets after the results. The ranges are so important as they differ from lab to lab so we would need to see yours so we can comment, otherwise we should just be guessing!

It can be a big learning curve but many able to help or just have a chat if not having a good day.

[Bohogirl22]

Thank you to everyone that replied.

Just an update on my results:

4.37 mu/L [0.35-3.5] that’s the TSH

10.1 pmol/L [7.5-21.1] that’s the T4

That’s all I was given.

I have no idea if that changes anything or what that means. Any help much appreciated.

Thank you

[Indygo in reply to Bohogirl22]

You're clearly hypothyroid. What you should do now is test full thyroid panel, antibodies and vitamins privately and then push your GP for treatment. This is exactly what I had to do.