I'm taking 87.5 ug Levothyroxine (100 ug one day followed by 75 ug the next day)
I know my primary care MD will not let my TSH go below this reference range of 0.55 without insisting on a lower dose of levothyroxine. She also would not like it very much if Free T4 went above this reference range of 1.52. My guess is that both of those would happen if I increased the dose of levothyroxine from 87.5 ug to 100 ug.
In that case, I would not be able to convince her that a TSH below reference range is fine and a Free T4 above reference range is fine, as long as the Free T3 value is within range.
It's not worth the risk. It's been a slow but successful process of convincing my primary care MD to move up in dose.
This may be as good as I'm going to get.
Any opinions?
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rjb112
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Change doctors? Doctors are there to advise you, not dictate to you. It's your body, and as long as you know the 'possible' risks, it should be your choice whether you have your TSH below range or your FT3 above it. What is important is that you feel well, regardless of whether your GP is happy. It's not her life and she doesn't have to suffer the concequences of under-medication. Well, that's my opinion, for what it's worth.
It would be difficult to find a primary care doc (in the healthcare system that I am in) that would be OK with me having a TSH below the reference range and a free T4 above the reference range.
I'm assuming that would happen if I increased the Levothyroxine dose to 100 ug.
I'm certain the Free T3 would stay within the reference range, but go higher within the range.
"In that case, the only other solution is to self-treat. Lots of us do for those very reasons."
greygoose, appreciate the details on that. How do you do that, step by step?
What all is involved?
Don't you require a medical doctor to prescribe/order the thyroid medication(s)?
Are you paying for everything on your own, such as the cost of the medications, the cost of labwork/blood tests and whatever other things are involved?
Yes, you would have to pay for both medication and any blood tests you do. But as private blood tests aren't available where I live, I skip that step. And, I buy my hormone on-line. I know my body well enough to know when I'm not taking enough, or too much. Blood tests are only a rough guide, anyway. Not the be-all-and-end-all doctors think they are. You might be interested in this article on blood tests:
The normal range: it is not normal and it is not a range
"Yes, you would have to pay for both medication and any blood tests you do. But as private blood tests aren't available where I live, I skip that step. And, I buy my hormone on-line"
greygoose, I don't think I can purchase Levothyroxine without a prescription, online or otherwise.
So how can I do this?
And how do you purchase your "hormone" online without prescription?
"Have You considered taking zinc and selenium? A lot of people increase conversion with those supplements (but not all)."
I have been either eating one Brazil nut every other day, or taking a liquid selenium supplement. I have not been supplementing Zinc. Maybe I need to look into that? I guess first I'd like to look into whether I can get enough zinc in the diet, in much the same way that I eat a Brazil nut to get selenium. Do you supplement with both zinc and selenium? How much zinc and how much selenium do you supplement with?
I'm a poor convertor myself, so I'm trying to add zinc and selenium by eating pumpkin seeds and brazilian nuts everyday. I also read that FERRITIN is key for good conversion. Let's see what happens.
"I'm a poor convertor myself, so I'm trying to add zinc and selenium by eating pumpkin seeds and brazilian nuts everyday. I also read that FERRITIN is key for good conversion. Let's see what happens."
Today I started again using a website called cronometer.com
You weigh or measure the foods that you eat, and enter them into the website.
The website tells you exactly how much of each nutrient you consumed, e.g., how much zinc, how much selenium, etc., and compares it with the daily requirement of that nutrient.
It's very helpful. I don't know if I am meeting the daily requirement for zinc, for example. But after entering my daily food for a week or two, I should have a very good idea.
You can also experiment by putting some sample foods or sample menus into the website, to see how much of certain nutrients a specific food has.
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