Interpretation of your results will be different depending on whether you have a diagnosis of a thyroid condition and are on thyroid hormone replacement or whether you think you may have a problem or if you are looking for a diagnosis.
I am not on thyroid medication. I haven’t been diagnosed with a thyroid condition.
We’re trying to get to the bottom of the health problems that I’ve been having for the last few years (debilitating exhaustion, muscle aches and weakness, dark under-eye circles, etc).
I’ve been diagnosed with anaemias - B12, foliage and iron - but they’re treated now and I still don’t feel better.
OK, so your results are euthyroid (normal). A normal healthy person would have a TSH of no more than 2, often around 1, with FT4 around mid-range-ish. As none of us are ever tested when well for a baseline, none of us know what our normal levels are, so your slightly lowish Free Thyroxine (FT4) might be your normal level.
Your thyroid antibodies are also negative for autoimmune thyroid disease.
It might be worth retesting in about 3 months to see if there are any changes, especially to your antibody levels as these do fluctuate.
When doing thyroid tests, we advise:
* Book the first appointment of the morning, or with private tests at home no later than 9am. This is because TSH is highest early morning and lowers throughout the day. If we are looking for a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, or looking for an increase in dose or to avoid a reduction then we need TSH to be as high as possible.
* Fast overnight - have your evening meal/supper as normal the night before but delay breakfast on the day of the test and drink water only until after the blood draw. Eating may lower TSH, coffee affects TSH so it's possible that other caffeine containing drinks may also affect TSH.
[* When taking thyroid hormone replacement, last dose of Levo should be 24 hours before blood draw, if taking NDT or T3 then last dose should be 8-12 hours before blood draw. Adjust timing the day before if necessary. This avoids measuring hormone levels at their peak after ingestion of hormone replacement. Take your thyroid meds after the blood draw. Taking your dose too close to the blood draw will give false high results, leaving any longer gap will give false low results.]
* If you take Biotin or a B Complex containing Biotin (B7), leave this off for 7 days before any blood test. This is because if Biotin is used in the testing procedure it can give false results (most labs use Biotin in the assay).
These are patient to patient tips which we don't discuss with doctors or phlebotomists.
We’re trying to get to the bottom of the health problems that I’ve been having for the last few years (debilitating exhaustion, muscle aches and weakness, dark under-eye circles, etc).
I’ve been diagnosed with anaemias - B12, foliage and iron - but they’re treated now and I still don’t feel better.
I was going to say that your symptoms could indicate low nutrient levels or deficiencies.
When you say they're treated now, what were your levels originally? What were you prescribed? What are your new levels and when were they tested? Are you on a maintenance dose or have you stopped supplementing?
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