I recently received some blood test results that I wanted some advice on interpreting, I am currently on 11/4 grains of armour thyroid, and still have debilitating fatigue and confusion, I really just wanted to know why this could still be the case. Any advice would be massively appreciated.
TSH-0.04 (0.27-4.2) indicates I’m hyper
Free T4: 14.4 (12-22)
Free T3: 5.76 (3.1-6.8)
TGAB: 172 (>115) high
TPO 38 (>34) also high
Ferritin : 50ug/L (13-150)
Folate serum: 10.52ug/L (>3.89)
Vitamin B12 144pmol/L (>37.9)
Vitamin D 64.5 nmol/L (50-175)
CRP: 1.7mg/L (<5)
Many thanks !
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Hafsah2345
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No, a low TSH doesn't indicate that you are hyper. If you are diagnosed with hypothyroidism it's physically impossible to become hyperthyroid. Did a doctor tell you that you were hyper?
Looking at your FT4 and FT3 - which are the actual thyroid hormones ((TSH is not a thyroid hormone, it's a pituitary hormone that sends a signal to the thyroid), we can see that your FT4 is a mere 24% through range and your FT3 is 71.89% through range. It is the FT3 level which tells us if we are overmedicated.
When on NDT it's usual for TSH to be low, even suppressed and for FT4 to be lowish in range.
It's possible that your FT4 is too low for you , some of us on combination hormone therapy are fine with a low FT4, some of us need it higher in range.
Your Ferritin is low at 50, recommended is half way through range and your low Ferritin could also be the cause of your fatigue.
Vit D is also rather low, the Vit D Society and Grassroots Health both recommend a level of 100-150nmol. Are you supplementing?
Yes, it was the doctors report from my medichecks blood test suggesting that my suppressed TSH was an indication that my armour dosage is too high and was making me potentially hyper thyroid and that I should thus reduce the dosage down back to 1 grain (didn’t help my symptoms however).
Do you recommend taking some Levothyroxine as a form of T4? I only ask because whenever I take levo I honestly feel 5x worse.. I have no clue what that is, but it worsens the pain in my thyroid gland to a point that’s unbearable. Do you know if there are any other alternatives ?
And I am supplementing with both vitamin D and ferritin at the current moment , and yes thats active B12
Yes, it was the doctors report from my medichecks blood test suggesting that my suppressed TSH was an indication that my armour dosage is too high and was making me potentially hyper thyroid and that I should thus reduce the dosage down back to 1 grain (didn’t help my symptoms however).
And this just goes to shown why it's not worth having do tor comments from these labs.
1) It's impossible to be one hyper if you are hypothyroid, although you can be overmedicated and that would be shown by high FT4/FT3
2) Your FT4 and FT3 results show us without any doubt that you are not overmedicated
3) Of course reducing your dose wouldn't help your symptoms because you weren't overmedicated
Do you recommend taking some Levothyroxine as a form of T4? I only ask because whenever I take levo I honestly feel 5x worse.. I have no clue what that is, but it worsens the pain in my thyroid gland to a point that’s unbearable. Do you know if there are any other alternatives ?
Did you previously only try one brand of Levo? If so it might be worth trying a different brand. I don't know of any other way to raise your FT4. But you could increase your NDT there is room looking at your FT3 level to add a bit more, that will give you a bit more T4. Maybe try another 1/4 grain.
How much Vit D are you taking? Are you also taking magnesium and Vit K2-mk7, two important cofactors when taking D3.
Hey Hafsah2345, I am in a similar situation. On Armour, currently on 2.5 grains and 6.25 Levo. My labwork is virtually similar on 2.5 + 1/8 grains of Armour: ft4 = 14.4, ft3 = 6.1, tsh below 0.01, same ranges as you. I take my meds once a day, first thing in the morning. When I try to up Armour to 2.75 I feel overdosed. I still have hypo symptoms and currently prepping to tweak Armour and T4 again as it makes the only logical sense to me (lowering Armour and adding t4 since my ft3 is high). This potentially could be the answer for you too. Some people also lower NDT and take more T3, but I will replenish T4 first. For the record, never done well on Levo only, or synthetic t4 + t3, NDT is more balanced for me and more symptoms disappear. Another option is to try add 1/8 of Armour to see if this resolves your final symptoms. I have still the cold feeling, water retention, dry skin and more going on, so I need probably more t4, despite high ft3.
Yeah it’s so frustrating, I honestly don’t know what other options I have left, whenever I’ve tried to take levo it makes my thyroid gland pain ridiculous, and my fatigue is crushing.... I honestly feel worse on levo than on no medication at all, so im not even sure how I’m supposed to raise my T4 levels naturally now. Also if you do take both medications then would you take it at the same time ? Or split throughout the day?
I know, I really do and I am sorry you are also going through this! Have you ever tried adding levo to Armour? When I was on synthetics I felt terrible, but added 6.25 mcg levo was ok. Still the biggest chunk is Armour. You can only try and see. I am currently overmedicated as my ft3 is higher than yours. I take everything in one go. Tried splitting into 3, or 2, but it was worse, peaks throughs, more hypo, did it for 1.5 years.
Hey I haven’t tried adding it to armour I’ve tried it on its own (always tried to go for a direct match quantity wise).. as per my understanding 1 grain armour is the same as 100mcg’s of levo (read this off Dr Isballa Wentz’s website). I think I might try adding some Levo to armour and see how it goes.. my only issue with levo is that is causes me extreme thyroid pain (no clue why), so I get pretty scared and stop.
I’m currently in the middle of trying to find the best endo possible to examine me properly.. I’ve honestly had enough of this situation and fear it’s going to end up leaving me unemployed at 22 lol.
Hey, the match is sometimes a problem, it is an approximate, then it depends on your absorption and conversion. Thyroid pain could be from the balance being off if you are on levo, hard to say. Or it could be that it doesn't suit you. You can always increase Armour by 1/8 and see what happens if you haven't tried..I know, I really understand, had to stop working a year ago as this was so bad. I'm 36 now.
You can get any of the thyroid symptoms with either hypo or hyper, it’s just more usual to be one or the other. It does make it harder to diagnose though by Drs. My Mum was very slim but was hypo, she wasn’t diagnosed because of this.
That’s so true.. all doctors think you have to be overweight to be properly suffering from an underactive thyroid- ive suffered with mysterious neck nerve pain/ carpal tunnel for over 4.5 years! I had multiple MRI’s and each time they ruled out any nerve root impingement / disc slip ect .. and magically the previous year when my thyroid issues kicked off, my neck pain disappeared out of no where.. I am 100% certain my thyroid had something to do with this undiagnosed nerve pain that went on for so long. In addition to crushing fatigue and memory issues
You could have secondary hypothyroidism, which could explain your results. This means your pituitary gland doesn’t function properly. This means TSH is low so thyroid doesn’t produce enough T4 and then T3.
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