Decrease in Levothyroxine

[misschris]

Hi All,

I was hoping that’s someone may be able to make sense of my latest blood test results as my GP has asked me to drop the 50mg of Levo I was alternating daily 125mg and 150 mg. I have been asked to stop the 50mg as my free T4 has come back high.

I’ve always felt that if anything I needed to up my meds due to hair loss, texture of hair is really dry and now I have tight curly hair instead of wavy, I also have weight gain, tired, no motivation, so I did not feel like I was heading to becoming hyper, my GP said it is dangerous and now I am taking 125mg daily.

I have attached my recent blood tests, maybe the symptoms I am experiencing are due to over medicated.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Misschris

No, nothing wrong with the results, your FT4 is not high, it's within range. Maybe GP needs to go to Specsavers 🙄 No need to reduce dose but it would be very useful to test FT3 to see where that lies within it's range.

[misschris in reply to SeasideSusie]

Do you think if I go back to GP I can ask them to test FT3. Knowing my docs they will want to know why I want it tested.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to misschris]

misschris

I don't know what your area allows. The hospital which does my GP tests will do FT3 if TSH is suppressed. I don't think any NHS labs routinely do FT3 which is why most of us do private tests. The cheapest private test for TSH, FT4 and FT3 is MonitorMyHealth (you should never do FT3 on it's own, it must be done from the same blood draw as the other tests).

thyroiduk.org/help-and-supp...

[misschris in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks for that, I think I will get private ones done and see how they are.

[greygoose]

Your FT4 is still in-range. No reason why you should drop your dose.

You're only over-medicated if your FT3 is over-range. As he hasn't even tested the FT3, he has no way of knowing if you are under or over-medicated. My guess is that you are a poor converter, and not much of that T4 is getting converted to T3. Which is why you still have a lot of symptoms. But, doctors know nothing about conversion. He's probably only looking at the TSH, actually, and having a hissy fit because it's so low. But, that's irrelevant. The most important number is the FT3, because T3 is the active hormone.

[misschris in reply to greygoose]

I agree I need the FT3 tested, maybe then I can challenge them but that’s if they will test it.

[greygoose in reply to misschris]

I doubt they will, for various reasons - such as it might show they actually have to do something!

Is private testing a possibility for you?

[misschris in reply to greygoose]

I will probably be able to get them done in few months, funds are tied up with other things at the mo.

[LuxN]

That's interesting because I was coming here to make a post about the very same thing (but about other health issues that might possibly be influencing my thyroid). This latest test just came back totally weird. My fT4 is usually about 18.2 (12-22) but this time it is 27.7! My GP has marked that as 'normal, no action.'

I wonder if there is a prob in the lab? I ask because for a few months now, I've had probs getting a T4 result (no probs with T3 and TSH) though. The reason given is that the sample is unusable. Which NHS Trust does your tests?

[misschris in reply to LuxN]

I don’t know, alls I know they are sent to my local hospital lab. It’s all very complicated don’t u think 🤔.

[misschris]

No, usually they only test the TSH.