Help for my lovely mum

[Sophlou]

Hi everyone. I’m looking for some help on behalf of my lovely mum (Janey1234 on this forum). Last year she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, which we found out a few weeks ago has spread beyond her pelvic region, so she is due to start chemotherapy tomorrow. She’s just had her latest blood test back and the T3 level has concerned her.

For context, she has Hashimotos and takes 125mg of Levothyroxine every night. Her T3 levels have been consistently good and have remained stable (around 4.5) since 2016 when she started on Levothyroxine.

She did a private blood test (Medichecks) two weeks ago, and her T3 level was 3.63. We put this drop in T3 down to the fact she’d began taking CBD oil and perhaps wasn’t leaving a big enough gap between that and her Levothyroxine - so she now leaves a 2-3 hour gap.

She did another test this week, expecting her T3 to have gone back up, but her T3 level has dropped to 3. She did leave the 24 hour Levo break beforehand, as this group has advised her.

She feels completely fine and is full of energy, and hasn’t changed her diet or anything. She’s just started taking Camu Camu (vit C) powder and a Spore Restore probiotic - both well over 5 hours away from her Levo.

The only other thing we can think to mention is that she had 5 weeks of pelvic radiotherapy back in Nov-Dec 2020, and 5 weeks ago she had a CT scan with contrast dye (which I assume is iodine?).

Our obvious question is, what has happened to her T3?

Her typical thyroid results:

TSH normally 0.06 (range of 0.27-4.2)

Ft4 normally between 16-20 (range of 12-22)

T3 normally around 4.5 (range of 3.1-6.8)

Her latest results:

TSH - 0.09

Ft4 - 20

T3 - 3

TGab - 11.7

TPOab - 84.1

Vitamin D - 169

Active B12 - >150

Ferritin - 110

Folate - 7.39 (she realises this isn’t particularly high but has always had this sort of level, despite eating broccoli and leafy green veg every single day).

She has used this group as a huge source of support for years, but given she’s starting chemo tomorrow, this just feels too much for her to deal with right now, so I’m looking to get some advice on her behalf. We don’t want to rush straight to the GP, not only because she’s about to start chemo, but because her GP usually just relies on the information and advice provided by this group. So really, this group is our first port of call.

Thank you so much everyone. Xx

[Batty1]

Sorry about your Mom I wish her a speedy recovery. I read something about T3 levels drop when your sick but for the life of me I can’t recall where I read this and Im not sure if this is even true.

[Buddy195 Administrator]

Sophlou, I’m sure others more experienced than I will offer advice. I just wanted to wish you & your mum well. Also, do repost if you don’t get responses this weekend. I’ve reposted a question before & got lots of replies on the second posting.

[klr31]

I wonder if your mum's low T3 is due to her being unwell with cancer. I have read this can happen but am no expert. I hope your mum's treatment goes well.

Karen