Tsh level

[Vincent512]

My sons tash level was 8.4 I did a home test and it’s now 6.5 what does this mean please .x

[RedApple Administrator]

Vincent512,

What home test did you use that gave the TSH of 6.5?

And was the first test through the GP or was that also a home test?

[Vincent512 in reply to RedApple]

First test through gp and second was a home test.x

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Vincent512]

Which home test? What testing company supplied this test?

[Vincent512 in reply to RedApple]

Medichecks

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Vincent512]

Was it TSH only? No FT4 and FT3?

How old is your son?

What time of day were each of the tests done?

We cannot give you the help you want without all the relevant information

[Vincent512 in reply to RedApple]

Son is 19 fist test at doctored was 8.4 done in afternoon I did another test 4 weeks later at home and it was 6.5 this is wot they tested for .he has another test at doctors in 4 weeks but he still feels really unwell. My brother , sister, niece and nan all had thyroid and on medication

[Marz]

Please take a look at your first post where there are explanations and advice. Click onto Vincent512 to find previous posts/replies ...

[shaws Administrator]

The TSH rate is variable throughout the day and that's why it is recommended that blood draw is at the earliest possible time, fasting (he can drink water) and if he was taking thyroid hormones you'd allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose and test and take dose afterwards and wait an hour before eating.

The TSH result can vary throughout the day and is highest early a.m. and that's why it is recommended to get the earliest possible blood draw, fasting (you can drink water) and take dose after.

Does your son have any of these symptoms?

thyroiduk.org/if-you-are-un...

I would tick off the symptoms on the above list and request another TSH test - the earliest possible. GP may not want to as your son has had a recent test, but you can, if you wish, get a private home blood test.

[tattybogle]

The reason GP's wait to do a repeat test in 3 months is to rule out a temporary , self resolving rise in TSH , before putting someone on thyroid replacement medicine , as this usually is for life. So obviously they are reluctant to move too quickly in young people , (and i think ? young people's thyroid ranges are a little different to those settled on in adulthood, could be wrong about that though , not sure how much research ever gets done on teenagers. but it wouldn't surprise me if teenagers thyroid levels are a bit more volatile than adults, with everything else that is going on in their bodies at that age)

So even though i understand your desire to get in with it, there are good reasons for Gp wanting to wait longer than 6 weeks to repeat thyroid function tests.

But in some cases they may agree to shorter time gap before diagnosis, even though guidelines for diagnosis suggest 2 x over range TSH 's 3 months apart.

Once someone has been started on thyroid replacement hormones it's no longer possible to see what the thyroid is doing by itself unless you come off them for many weeks.

There is something a bit unusual in the results you have above . which is that even though the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is high, the fT4 and fT3 results are also pretty high in range .

TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is a signal from the pituitary gland to the thyroid asking for more thyroid hormone to be produced when it senses there is not enough, so in hypothyroidism you will usually see high TSH along with lower fT4 /3 results.

However sometimes in the early stages of thyroid disease there are unpredictable ups and downs as they thyroid tries to keep up with demand, before it ultimately cant manage.

Did the test you did include thyroid antibodies ? TPOab (thyroid peroxidase antibodies) or TGab (thyroglobulin antibodies) ?

If TPOab are raised it shows an increased probability that autoimmune thyroid disease will eventually cause hypothyroidism, and so this might lead to GP's starting treatment sooner than if they were unsure of the cause of the High TSH.

(Raised TGab can also indicate autoimmune thyroid disease , but ? can also be present for other causes, and NHS don't usually accept them as diagnostic of autoimmune hypothyroidism)

[Vincent512]

They also did the antibodies and these are the results bottom one is 9

[tattybogle in reply to Vincent512]

OK so both are negative , which lessens the chance of it being autoimmune thyroid disease/hashimoto's causing the problem, (but doesn't totally rule it out , since there is a small % of people who show thyroid damage on a scan which is in the distinctive pattern of hashimotos' autoimmune disease , but who do not have raised antibodies)

Wait and see what the upcoming GP's Thyroid function test results are , and try and get them to at least do an fT4 as well as just a TSH (an fT3 would be good too , but you'll be lucky if you can get them to do that.. they get their hands smacked for asking , and the lab usually overrides the GP and say's NO anyway)

[Vincent512 in reply to tattybogle]

Oh god really 🙄 but wld you say he has a thyroid problem .x He feels totally out of it all the time and eyes feel weird , bad skin

[tattybogle in reply to Vincent512]

If it was my kid .... i'd say those TSH levels clearly indicate something is going on at the moment , but wouldn't want to start a kid of that age on thyroid medication until i'd seen a lot more results over a longer period of time and had a clearer idea of a trend in results. And to be honest i doubt a GP would either at the moment , if they saw those levels of fT4 and fT3 are as good as they are on that day . (they might not see them though, cos NHS sometimes just test TSH , believing incorrectly that it tells them everything)

But like i said fT4 /3 can be quite up and down in the early months/yrs of a thyroid problem.

The thing is , what ever causes a thyroid problem, the treatment is the same, give thyroid hormone replacement, and once started it's usually continued for life.

If GP were to start thyroid hormone replacement , the real aim would be to get fT4 and fT3 levels to pretty much where they are now, and usually the several months long process of finding the right dose involves having less hormone than when you started for a while ,as taking some orally sort of supresses the thyroids own production a little. (oversimplification , but it's not as simple as "just give some to top it up"0

The other problem is that taking Levothyroxine which is just T4 , usually leaves you with less T3 than someone who's own thyroid is still allowed to do it's own thing , and T3 is the active hormone that makes cells work so T3 is the one you want as good as it can be. and currently on the results above ,T3 is really good,

So i'd say don't rush the diagnostic process , taking oral thyroid hormones is not to be desired unless you're certain it is an ongoing problem and then you have no choice.

If there's a chance it will right itself, it is much preferable to have your own production of T3 and T4, than to be taking just T4 from Levo for life.

I feel a bit out of my depth with teenage boys thyroid levels , as honestly i don't know what 'normal ' is for them, or how much if at all it differs from what we usually see here. or how volatile they are naturally at that age.

edit :-

i was just reading this thyroidpatients.ca/2020/10/...

Which has a section on "how age and TSH levels affects fT3 /fT4 and fT3:fT4 ratio"

It seems from the figures that healthy 10-20 yr olds do usually have a fairly high fT3 level compared to us older folk, , which still doesn't help with an explanation of why your son's TSH is as high as it is , but thought i'd add the information here anyway in case it helps anyone later.

[magsyh]

With a T4 and T3 level like that there is nothing wrong with your son's thyroid function and he doesn't have auto immune hashimotos. Perhaps the T3 is not getting to his cells? He needs a good vitamin d level and vitamin A to do that. Has he been taking any iodine supplements or eating more fish?I have been off my thyroid medication for two months now and my results are very similar to your son's. I had an iodine deficiency and since I started the iodine protocol my TSH shot up. Apparently it's the pituitary sending signals to soak up the iodine like a sponge. I was told my TSH would start to drop when my thyroid is saturated. I still have mild hypothyroid symptoms but weight gain from levothyroxine is the worst. Don't jump in to medication especially as no hashimotos. Give it some time. Perhaps a cortisol check needed. Could be low cortisol not letting thyroid hormone into cells.