Advice please: Hello everyone, I would like to... - Thyroid UK

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Advice please

Prilver profile image
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Hello everyone,

I would like to thank you all in advance for your help! This forum is amazing and I feel this is a great way of supporting each other.

I’m a 34 year old women who just been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. But my blood results are not “typical”. And I would like some advice.

I have started recently Levothyroxine (50), after the blood test. And I had an app with and endo this week, which was highly disappointing. He asked me a lot of questions and just requested more blood test.

Please give me your opinion on what should I do now (do a private blood test, ask for other tests, etc) based on these infos.

Thank you!

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Prilver
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Prilver profile image
Prilver

And this is the test I did also before the Levo and before the app with the endo.

Values and Investigations (all between 28-Jul-2020 and 28-Jul-2020)

Thyroid Panel - (JJR) - Normal - No Act ion

Ant i-Thy roglobulin Abs . 17U/ml --- 0.00 - 115.00U/ ml

Anti -TPO Antibodies 31 U/ml --- 0.00 - 34.00U/ml

! VITAM IN D. - (JJR) - Abnormal - See GP

! Serum 25- HO vit 03 level 43 nmol/L. - -- 50.00 - 150.00nmol/L

Vitamin D interpretation Deficiency < 25 nmol/L Insufficiency 25 to 50 nmol/L Therapeutic target> 50 nmol/L

FOLATE - (JJR) - Normal - No Action

Serum folate 3.3 ug/L --- 3.00 - 20.00ug/L

! Thyroid function test - (JJR} - Abno rmal - See GP

Serum TSH level 3.59mlU/ L --- 0 .27 - 4.20mlU/L

! Serum free T4 level 9.3 pmol/L ---- 12.00 - 22.00pmol/ L

SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator in reply toPrilver

Ant i-Thy roglobulin Abs . 17U/ml --- 0.00 - 115.00U/ ml

Anti -TPO Antibodies 31 U/ml --- 0.00 - 34.00U/ml

TPO antibodies suspiciously near top of range

Suggests autoimmune thyroid disease is possible cause

What’s your diet like?

Are you gluten or dairy free?

SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator

Welcome to the forum

Presumably these tests are from BEFORE starting on 50mcg levothyroxine?

Yes typically with such low Ft4 TSH would be raised

Your TSH is not responding correctly....possibly some degree of central hypothyroidism

When hypothyroid we frequently have low stomach acid and this tends to lower vitamin levels

Essential to regularly retest vitamin D and ferritin as well as B12 and folate

So you need vitamin D and ferritin tested

Folate is far too low, only just above deficient

B12 is too low

supplementing a good quality daily vitamin B complex, one with folate in (not folic acid) may be beneficial.

This can help keep all B vitamins in balance and will help improve B12 levels too

Difference between folate and folic acid

chriskresser.com/folate-vs-...

Many Hashimoto’s patients have MTHFR gene variation and can have trouble processing folic acid.

thyroidpharmacist.com/artic...

B vitamins best taken after breakfast

Igennus Super B is good quality and cheap vitamin B complex. Contains folate. Full dose is two tablets per day. Many/most people may only need one tablet per day. Certainly only start on one per day (or even half tablet per day for first couple of weeks)

Or Thorne Basic B or jarrow B-right are other options that contain folate, but both are large capsules

If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 7 days before any blood tests, as biotin can falsely affect test results

endo.confex.com/endo/2016en...

endocrinenews.endocrine.org...

Low B12 symptoms

b12deficiency.info/signs-an...

You also need BOTH TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested to see if cause of hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto’s

About 90% of primary hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroid disease

20% of Hashimoto's patients never have raised antibodies

Have you had ultrasound scan of thyroid?

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Paul Robson on atrophied thyroid - especially if no TPO antibodies

paulrobinsonthyroid.com/cou...

Have you had coeliac blood test?

Thyroid levels should be retested 6-8 weeks after each dose increase in levothyroxine

Dose levothyroxine is stepped up slowly in 25mcg steps. Most people need to increase until on something around full replacement dose of 1.6mcg per kilo of your weight

NICE guidelines on full replacement dose

nice.org.uk/guidance/ng145/...

1.3.6

Consider starting levothyroxine at a dosage of 1.6 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day (rounded to the nearest 25 micrograms) for adults under 65 with primary hypothyroidism and no history of cardiovascular disease.

gp-update.co.uk/Latest-Upda...

Traditionally we have tended to start patients on a low dose of levothyroxine and titrate it up over a period of months.

RCT evidence suggests that for the majority of patients this is not necessary and may waste resources.

For patients aged >60y or with ischaemic heart disease, start levothyroxine at 25–50μg daily and titrate up every 3 to 6 weeks as tolerated.

For ALL other patients start at full replacement dose. For most this will equate to 1.6 μg/kg/day (approximately 100μg for a 60kg woman and 125μg for a 75kg man).

If you are starting treatment for subclinical hypothyroidism, this article advises starting at a dose close to the full treatment dose on the basis that it is difficult to assess symptom response unless a therapeutic dose has been trialled.

A small Dutch double-blind cross-over study (ArchIntMed 2010;170:1996) demonstrated that night time rather than morning dosing improved TSH suppression and free T4 measurements, but made no difference to subjective wellbeing. It is reasonable to take levothyroxine at night rather than in the morning, especially for individuals who do not eat late at night.

BMJ also clear on dose required

bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m41

bestpractice.bmj.com/topics...

Important to test Ft4 and Ft3 at each test. NHS rarely tests Ft3, so thousands of U.K. patients forced to get full thyroid testing privately

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 .

Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

Thriva Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins By DIY fingerpick test

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Thriva also offer just vitamin testing

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins by DIY fingerprick test

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

If you can get GP to test vitamins and antibodies then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3

£29 (via NHS private service ) and 10% off if go on thyroid uk for code

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

monitormyhealth.org.uk/thyr...

SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator

! VITAM IN D. - (JJR) - Abnormal - See GP

! Serum 25- HO vit 03 level 43 nmol/L. - -- 50.00 - 150.00nmol/L

Low vitamin D of 43nmol obviously needs improving and GP should prescribe 1600iu everyday for 6 months

Did GP prescribe vitamin D?

Vitamin D

GP will often only prescribe to bring levels to 50nmol.

Some areas will prescribe to bring levels to 75nmol

leedsformulary.nhs.uk/docs/...

GP should advise on self supplementing if over 50nmol, but under 75nmol (but they rarely do)

mm.wirral.nhs.uk/document_u...

NHS Guidelines on dose vitamin D required

ouh.nhs.uk/osteoporosis/use...

But improving to around 80nmol or 100nmol by self supplementing may be better

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/218...

vitamindsociety.org/pdf/Vit...

Once you Improve level, very likely you will need on going maintenance dose to keep it there.

Test twice yearly via vitamindtest.org.uk

Vitamin D mouth spray by Better You is very effective as it avoids poor gut function. There’s a version made that also contains vitamin K2 Mk7

It’s trial and error what dose we need, when hypothyroid we frequently need higher dose than average

Calculator for working out dose you may need to bring level to 40ng/ml = 100nmol

grassrootshealth.net/projec...

Government recommends everyone supplement October to April

gov.uk/government/news/phe-...

With your Vit D, are you also taking it's important cofactors - magnesium and Vit K2-MK7?

Magnesium best taken in the afternoon or evening, but must be four hours away from levothyroxine

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

livescience.com/61866-magne...

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

Vitamin K2 mk7

betterbones.com/bone-nutrit...

healthline.com/nutrition/vi...

SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator

FOLATE - (JJR) - Normal - No Action

Serum folate 3.3 ug/L --- 3.00 - 20.00ug/L

NHS is only obligated to treat deficiencies

Down to you as the patient to maintain optimal vitamin levels

Aiming for folate at least half way through range

B12 at least over 500

greygoose profile image
greygoose

With such a low FT4, one would expect a much higher TSH. Pity they didn't test your FT3, but still, these results look rather like Central Hypo, where the problem lies with the pituitery (Secondary Hypo) or the hypothalamus (Tertiary Hypo) rather than the thyroid itself.

To diagnos that, a lot more tests are necessary. Without knowing which tests your endo has suggested, it's impossible to say if that's the line he's following. But, at this point, there's not a lot more he can do except give you levo. :)

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

Welcome to our forum. If you'd like to become a member of Thyroiduk.org.uk this is the organisation behind this forum. It was started by Lyn Mynott when she had difficulties and the office is in her garden and she and her two staff work hard doing all of the background work necessary to try to change attitudes of the medical professionals.

The more members TUK have, the stronger our voices. A short time ago she had a meeting at the House of Lords about the withdrawal of T3 from hypo patients which was done without any notice at all which caused immense worry and stress.

thyroiduk.org/?v=79cba1185463

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