I have been hypothyroid for over 20 years.

[mabaker]

My dosage has been 75mcgs of Levothyroxin for almost the majority of that time, I am now 83 years old. On one occasion approximately five years ago I had very bad head pains and was taken into hospital for observation over night. The next day I was fine and told I could go home but told to reduce my Levothyroxin by 25mcgs. Needless to say after 17days I started to feel ill so started to take the 25mgs again and was fine. Now once again my GP has said that I have too much thyroid in my body and reduce my dosage by 25mcgs and would not refer me to an Endocrinologist, so I went private. He has told me to leave things as they are for three months. February my TSH was 0.17 and August TSH is 0.05. It all means nothing to me, I also have heart problems which started with AF, I think that I need help to understand.

[fuchsia-pink]

You can't tell ANYTHING useful from TSH once you are on thyroid meds. I accept it is the primary diagnostic tool for GPs to work out if you are hypo to start with, but beyond that, it tells you very little.: you want to know what your actual thyroid hormones are doing. So you need more to be tested to tell whether your dosing is right. If the GP won't do proper testing, you will see lots of posts here about private tests. Hopefully SlowDragon will pop up in a bit to summarise what is available and the discount available from Thyroid UK.

At an absolute minimum you need TSH, free T4 and free T3 testing. Ideally also thyroid antibodies (unless you know these are high) and key nutrients - ferritin, folate, vit D and B12.

When you have new results, post them here and the loveoly people will help you to understand them - but basically, you want your free T4 and free T3 at least in the top third of their reference ranges. If you don't feel tip-top, odds are you are under-medicated ...

Good luck x

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Just testing TSH is completely inadequate

Do you always get same brand of levothyroxine

Always take levothyroxine on empty stomach and then nothing apart from water for at least an hour after

Do you take any other medications?

Never within 2 hours of levothyroxine

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

Do you have autoimmune thyroid disease

Also low B12 is especially common as we age

What vitamin supplements are you currently taking

Ask GP to test vitamin levels

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)

Is this how you do your tests?

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 vitamins including folate (private blood draw required)

medichecks.com/products/thy...

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...

AF can be due to low Ft3 or high Ft4

Essential to test Ft4 and Ft3 and vitamins

Come back with new post once you get results

[mabaker in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you very much for your quick reply to my dilemma. It is so heart warming to know that there is someone out there who understands what I am talking about and can advise me what to do because even your closest and dearest cannot help. I will get the tests done and will be happy to post them to try to discover what my problem is. Once again thank you so much for your help.