Supermarket TSH test – why I wouldn’t waste my money - A personal viewpoint

[Charlie-Farley]

So there has been some talk about these and there are so many reasons not to waste your money on these - In my humble opinion.

As others have said and it is frequently mentioned -

(come on everyone the chorus please) ‘TSH is not a thyroid hormone’.

There are other posts on all the things that could be/go wrong that render the TSH measure incredibly unreliable so I won't repeat but tattybogle has made a fantastic compilation that is pinned for everyone to read use add to if they have a useful resource.

So this is my beef with the Supermarket Test kit for TSH.

Anyone who knows nothing (or less than) ie not on the forum and trying to make sense of their condition, will presume this is a quality product, believe the results are reliable and potentially drag their ill-selves around for another few years, probably never mentioning to their doctor they did a supermarket blood test and potentially developing comorbidities in the interim. It’s hard enough to get a diagnosis as it is for many of us.

It is absolutely the worst of all scenarios. It doesn’t even cover the issue of central hypothyroidism or even more perplexing the combination of both central and Hashimoto’s - after all the two are not mutually exclusive and may in some part explain why some people’s TSH never reaches the NHS treatable threshold. For those with below or around the threshold TSH but presenting with overt hypothyroid symptoms it is hard enough to get a diagnosis as it is they have to fight for TSH to be ignored, push to have FT4 and FT3 considered and importantly, symptoms to be acknowledged (the latitude is there In guidelines but doctors rarely use it).

I was only just over the threshold and was able to adequately articulate my state and point out some fairly compelling symptoms, but ultimately the low heart rate was the clincher, because it was measurable. So luckily I was treated (albeit mismanaged for 6 months) but looking back at my health records I had over a decades worth of unexplainable issues, which pretty much cleared up once properly treated.

BUT! were it not for an amazing lady (fellow sufferer) who was very knowledgeable giving me that initial advice and guidance might I have fallen foul of the Supermarket Tat test? Yes I do mean Tat…….

Until the penny drops and we land here on the forum how many of us might have bought a cheap test at the supermarket - got a non-result and then discounted the possibility we had hypothyroidism? It is too awful to contemplate.