Dhea and saliva test

[AleB]

Could anyone advise please, do I not take thyroid meds for Dhea blood test? For the saliva cortisol, I take meds as normal? Should these two tests be done on the same day? Taking 87.5mcg levo, endo told me to reduce lio to 1.25 x 2 per day from 2.5 x 2 per day... My adrenals were off before the drop, not too bad, but I am freezing cold, my skin is dry, fatigue and muscle aches.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

AleB

do I not take thyroid meds for Dhea blood test?

I've never done one so can't help there.

For the saliva cortisol, I take meds as normal?

You take all essential medication as normal on the day you do the test. You don't take any supplements on the day of collection until after all samples have been collected. (Hopefully you're doing a Regenerus or Genova test and not a Medichecks test.)

Should these two tests be done on the same day?

I don't know for certain but I'm guessing it would be best done on the same day. If you've got a Regenerus or Genova saliva test then DHEA is included in that.

endo told me to reduce lio to 1.25 x 2 per day from 2.5 x 2 per day...

my latest blood work from 07/01/22

87.5 per day levo plus 2.5 lio 6am and 2.5 lio 2pm

TSH 1.92 range 0.27 - 4.2

FT3 4.25 range 3.1 - 6.8

FT4 16.800 range 12 - 22

So on 5mcg T3 per day you had the above result, and the endo wants you to reduce to 2.5mcg per day 🙄 What does he think is going to happen to your already low FT3 level?

[AleB in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks for the tip on the saliva test, unfortunately it is medichecks! I know that I wasn't over medicated on the T3, however because I slightly changed the T4 from 100/100/75/75/100/100/75 to 87.5 per day, endo wanted a blood test... It was only 4 weeks since my bloods at 6 weeks, which were low! To stop the peaks, I changed the T4 to stop horrid highs and lows. I have been a week on this revised T3 dose, although sleeping better at night, I have dizziness, dry skin, horrendous adrenal pain. It seems that over the past 3 months, just before my monthly cycle (10 days early this month) "I have really awful symptoms. I am nearly 48. I asked the GP 6 months ago to test SHBG, I was slightly low... They informed me `we don't test for at least a year' if problems persist'! I have noticed that after 3 hours after taking the reduced dose of T3, it peaks, my temp rises to 36.2, I feel heady and hot" and really rough. Maybe I need to lower T4 and gradually increase T3 by 1.25 on a morning

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to AleB]

AleB

unfortunately it is medichecks!

Oh dear Unfortunately that's a poor choice and wont give you much information. The reason being is that it only tests cortisol and it's recommended to test both cortisol plus DHEA as this helps with determining stages of adrenal fatigue. I don't know if your saliva cortisol plus blood DHEA will be any help in this regard.

It also has zero as the bottom of the range for two of the tests which is ridiculous. Ranges are based on healthy people, if anyone did actually have a level of zero they'd be either very poorly or in the the morgue. Another thing is that for one (or maybe both) of those tests they do not give an exact level, they only measure to 1.5 and anything lower than that is given as <1.5. It's important to have a proper reading. For bedtime I think the range is 0-2 and at bedtime that should be the lowest reading of the day, the lower the better. So if the result comes back anywhere between 1.6 and 2 (or above) you know it's too high. However, by just putting <1.5 you don't know if your level is as low as zero or as high as 1.4 so you wont know if your result is good or not. Regenerus has proper reference intervals for all samples.

Considering the cost of Medichecks' DHEA blood test is £49 and their saliva cortisol test is £79, you would have been much better off having a Regenerus test, which does both cortisol plus DHEA, for £87.50, and it's plotted nicely on a graph so you can see how well (or not) you follow the normal curve:

cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...

[AleB in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you for your detailed reply Seaside, the first ever saliva I had was from Regenerus. I never got to see the results, endo had all the info, and I was somewhat naive at the start of this nightmare... Maybe I can ask medichecks if they will accept the test kits back and ask for a refund? Well, tonight hit me like a steam train... walked my daughter to swimming lesson, (literally round the corner), all too familiar pull on the heart, and I could barely walk straight. Managed to get home, just! Slurred speach, can hardly stand up straight! Not enough thyroid hormone to keep the old girl up right! I'm slumped on the sofa at present. This is the last time I consult an endo, only for them to make me sicker and pay for the privilege. What can I do, as I'm not functioning now, should I add more T3 back?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to AleB]

You can cancel within 30 days of receiving your kit. See Section 9 of their Ts and Cs

medichecks.com/pages/terms-...

[AleB in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thank you so much for your help.