High stress and TSH

[Gophe]

I posted recently(healthunlocked.com/thyroidu... about how my NSH and Medichecks TSH tests had very different results just 3 weeks apart, taken under the same conditions. My NHS TSH was 0.98 and 3 weeks later, my Medichecks TSH was 3.53. I redid my Medichecks after staying off biotin for a week and it then came in at 2.76.

I realize that my NHS test was taken 3 weeks after my mother died, at a very stressful time, and then my first Medichecks test happened while I was under extremely high pressure and stress on an important project -- where I was waking up multiple times in the night with anxiety about the project. I've read that cortisol and TSH have a positive correlation, so it makes sense that my TSH would have risen throughout that whole period.

So I'm thinking that, rather than just increasing my levothyroxine dose at this point, it would make sense to decompress first and check my levels again in another 4 - 6 weeks or so. (Considering my TSH was at 0.98 just 3 weeks after the trauma of my mother's death, I'd guess it was lower still before that, so I take that to mean that my baseline was likely in a good place. Although I was taking biotin at the time of that test, so it may not be reliable.)

I'd love to get any thoughts or input on that front. Specifically, is it correct to expect cortisol to drop gradually over the next few weeks as my stress level decreases? And, if so, is it correct to expect my TSH to drop in tandem?

(As backgrounder: I've been on levothyroxine for about 6 years and last increased my dose from 50mcg to 75 mcg in May of this year.)

[Bearo]

I’m fairly new to this site and only just starting to learn about the complexities of treating the thyroid. So I am not able to reply to your main queries, but I will just comment that your Levothyroxine is a fairly low dose and I wonder if there is a reason for that? Was it ever higher?

[Gophe in reply to Bearo]

Hi Bearo. No, I've never been on a higher dose. When I first started on levo and took a full 25mcg pill, I had a big reaction to it (felt super jittery and nauseous), so I went down to 12.5 (ie, cutting the tablets in half). Since then I increased it 3 times (to 25, to 50, and to 75).