nearly a year later

[Charlyboy]

Hi Guys

Nearly a year later after finally finding a doctor that understood and helped.

After increasing dosage over what seems like forever I've been taking 150mcg Levothyroxine for nearly 4 months. I've just had the results from my latest blood test from Thriva and would greatly appreciate some feedback. As you probably already know Thriva don't give ranges its just colour coded and they tell you if normal, optimal etc.

This is my original post and a set of results so you can compare.

Hi everyone I'm a newbie and was hoping for some advice.

Brief history, following a few blood tests and after much arm twisting I persuaded my doctor to prescribe 25mg of levothyroxine as my TSH level was 6.13 and free T4 10.9.

Follow up blood test 6 months later TSH down to 3.55 but didn't test for T4 for some reason.

My mood has improved but my memory is still poor and I suffer occasionaly with getting a deep breath. My libido has suffered badly also but not sure this has anything to do with being Hypo.

I've asked my doctor if increasing my dose would further improve things and the response I got was my TSH is below 4.0 so we'll do another blood test in 12 months.

Can anyone offer any advice as I'm not convinced my doctor is correct.

Got my results back from Thriva ( excellent service by the way thank you for recommending ) although they said there was a problem testing for folate so unfortunately that's missing. Not sure at all if the other results depend heavily on it but here goes.

Active B12 - 62.3 pmol/L

Ferritin - 159 ug/L

FT3 - 5.81 pmol/L

TSH - 5.44 mlU/L

TgAB - 10.4 kU/L

TPOAb - < 9 klU/L

T4 - 96.7 nmol/L

FT4 - 15 pmol/L

Vitamin D - 60.4 nmol/L

......................................................................................................................

These are the results I just received:

Active B12 - 115 pmol/L normal

Ferritin - 95 ug/L optimal

folate yet again no result, they tell me sample haemolysed. Not sure what I can do differently to get a result.

TSH - 0.33 mlU/L normal

FT4 - 20.5 pmol/L normal

FT3 - 6.3 pmol/L normal

TPOAb - 14.7 klU/L normal

T4 - 105 nmol/L normal

TgAB - 14.4 kU/L normal

Vitamin D - 78 nmol/L normal

I feel a lot better, brain fog is 90% improved, I'm not in kill mode anymore and I do have more energy. The only thing that concerns me a little is that I still occassionally get a problem getting a full breath. I know a few members have mentioned the same problem.

As usual thank you so much for any feedback, I wouldn't be where I am on this journey without you.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You can print out pdf including ranges from Thriva

intercom.help/thrivahelpcen...

[GrowingVeg]

Sounds like good progress! Nice to hear.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Charlyboy

As you probably already know Thriva don't give ranges its just colour coded and they tell you if normal, optimal etc.

If you look below the coloured bar there are numbers, see here:

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

The numbers either end of the green part of the bar signify the reference range, include both the light and dark green parts. Ignore their "normal" or "optimal" references, they are generally nonsense.

You can also see the normal ranges on the pdf as SlowDragon has mentioned.

TSH - 0.33 mlU/L (0.27-4.20)

FT4 - 20.5 pmol/L (12-22) = 85% through range

FT3 - 6.3 pmol/L (3.1-6.8) = 86.49% through range

FT4 and FT3 nicely balanced so conversion is good. TSH is still within range so shouldn't freak GP out. A nice set of results if you feel well.

TPOAb - 14.7 klU/L (<34)

TgAB - 14.4 kU/L (<115)

Well below upper limit so these results show negative for autoimmune thyroid disease. Antibodies do fluctuate so the fact they are different from last time is no real problem.

Vitamin D - 78 nmol/L

The Vit D Society and Grassroots Health recommend a level of 100-150nmol/L, with a recent blog post on Grassroots Health mentioning a study which recommends over 125nmol/L.

Are you supplementing?

B12 and Ferritin are good.

[Charlyboy in reply to SeasideSusie]

I did supplement for about 2 months but stopped about 2 months ago, maybe I should start again.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Charlyboy]

Charlyboy

I personally keep my Vit D at the top of the recommended range so if you want to look at improving your level to reach the recommended level you'd be looking at supplementing with aorund 2,000-3,000iu D3 daily along with D3's important cofactors - magnesium and Vit K2-MK7.

Retest after 3 months and when you've reached the recommended level adjust your dose to keep within that range, retest twice a year to keep a check on it.