Please advise on Blue Horizons Blood Test Result (includes Cortisol). I need to be fighting my corner with GP against recent awful Endo!

[ChronicTonic]

Hi,

I’m taking 75mcg Levothyroxine in the mornings and 25mcg T3 twice daily.

I followed the recommended protocol for blood tests from you lovely folk at Thyroid UK in advance of this latest test (thanks for all the advice).

RE; My Cortisol levels, I took the test at 9am yesterday (how quick are Blue Horizons in giving me the results already?!)

Would you guys be able to interpret these results for me?

I’m still reeling from my negative NHS endocrinologist appointment a fortnight ago, so would dearly love to know how my bloods look and how best to progress my thyroid health by myself. I am determined to fight!

Many thanks in advance,

Abi.

[Lalatoot]

It is an individual thing as to where we need our ft4 and Ft3 levels to be.

For me your ft4 result would be too low. I would have a sore throat and have lost my voice. That Ft3 result would be too high and I would be starting to feel a bit edgy and just wrong.

If those were my results I would be reducing my t3 initially by quarter tablet. Then after several weeks increasing levo by 25mcg. Holding those doses for 8 weeks and retesting.

It is only by trial and error, frequent blood tests, small changes one at a time, listening to our bodies and trusting our instinct that we can find the doses that suit us individually.

[ChronicTonic in reply to Lalatoot]

Thank you Lalatoot for taking the time to reply. I’ve been deeply in the dumps and highly unmotivated (lowly motivated?! ) for months and feeling a bit sorry for myself, so hadn’t found the wherewithal to reply ‘til now. Reading back, I do wonder if the unsupportive endocrinologist affected me more than I thought. It’s all so frustrating, isn’t it? I really appreciated your reply, and read it when you left it for me.

I don’t feel awful, but I don’t feel right either: I still generally feel hot and cold but less sore, and overall still 75% better than the twenty+ years I was just taking T4. Maybe I’m just used to being over T3’d and under T4’d!

Needless to say, because of my inertia I hadn’t changed anything in my medication routine. So, with today’s fresh head, currently -

I take 25mcg T3 twice a day (morning and night) and

75mcg T4 in the morning

Following your recommendation, I’ll drop 1/4 tablet of one of the T3 tablet for 3 weeks. Maybe shave 1/4 from the evening tablet?

Then, after 3 weeks I’ll increase the T4 from 75mcg to 100mcg

Does that all sound right to you?

Thank you so much!

[McPammy]

I’d say you are taking too much T3. You need to reduce your T3. When I’m over I go very tired and dizzy sometimes confused and waking too early.

Maybe reduce your T3 to 17.5. Are you on 25mcg tablets. Or change your T3 to the 20mcg size and reduce to that. It doesn’t take long to get back within range maybe 3/5 days.

Also T3 pushes up your cortisol Before I started T3 my cortisol was under range Since starting last year my cortisol shot up and has remained good and high in the range This could be why your cortisol is quite high as your T3 is high

We all have differing doses to take us to the top level of the blood tests. I only need 5mcg twice a day along with 75mcg Levothyroxine to get me to top of my blood ranges. I have DIO2 positive gene test too. Have you checked this.

[ChronicTonic in reply to McPammy]

Thanks for your input, McPammy I think you’re right about the T3 being too high.

I take 25mcg T3 twice daily (in the morning and at night) and 75mcg T4 in the morning.

Since I take T3 twice a day, should I reduce only one tablet of T3 to 17.5mcg, or both?

I’ve been taking the same level of T4 and T3 for a couple of years now. Recently I’ve become very hot and sweaty at times, and sometimes my heartbeats are racing, but my hormones are all over the place and I think it’s the perimenopause rather than anything else.

My brother has the DIO2 gene, but I don’t know if I do. He doesn’t have any thyroid issues, in any case. I was on T4-only for 20 years, and the addition of T3 has changed my life for the better. By a long shot! But it may be I need an increase or T4 with a touch of T3 rather than 50mcg (25mcg twice daily).

Thank you for your thoughts xx

[McPammy in reply to ChronicTonic]

Do you have your latest bloods to measure exactly what you need to change, if anything.

Just seems very high to start 25mcg T3 twice a day. I’m only in 5mcg three times a day when exercising regularly or twice a day if not along with 75mcg Levothyroxine.

[ChronicTonic in reply to McPammy]

Thanks McPammy those are my most recent tests.

I took months to get to the point of 25mcg T3 twice a day - and that was a few years ago! I’ve been on the same doses ever since. Probably about 3 years now.

It’s only in the last month or two that I’ve managed to pick up extra T4, when my GP bumped my T4 up from 75mcg to 100mcg.

However, I haven’t taken the 100mcg yet as I’ve been feeling so low I couldn’t muster the brain energy to change my doses of T4 and T3 simultaneously. It’s been a tough few months!

Hence having a flash of brain today and wondering how I approach reducing T3 and increasing T4.

Thanks for your input btw

[Hidden]

the question is, how do you feel?

[ChronicTonic in reply to Hidden]

Hi @Hidden thanks for your question. I actually don’t feel great, but I can’t tell if it’s the ME, Fibromyalgia, Transverse Myelitis, Long COVID (I caught it in March) or the perimenopause!

I’m all over the place right now and have just come out of a long period of low mood. Hence my late reply (apologies: I just couldn’t muster the brain power)!

In terms of my thyroid I feel a zillion times better than without T3, but I still don’t feel I’ve got my thyroid treatment quite right. It’s so hard having to manage it on our own, isn’t it?!

So thank you for your response, I appreciate the sentiment

[Hidden]

I can only really comment on the cortisol result & say that it is at an optimal level for that time of day. Cortisol should be at it's highest level first thing in the morning & then drops through the day, so yours is spot on.

[ChronicTonic in reply to Hidden]

A belated thank you, Hidden