Mrs_Jacqui_G firstly how do you feel? Do you still have symptoms? Secondly, we would really need to see a T3 result to be able to comment on whether you are adequately treated. T4 on its own tells us nothing and especially when we do not have the range (the figures in brackets) as each lab machine is calibrated differently.
T4 is the storage hormone and T3 is the active hormone which every cell in our body needs to function properly. TSH is not very relevant when you are taking thyroid hormone tablets, levothyroxine and or liothyronine.
Also do you have any test results for your vitamins. If they are low then your body cannot utilise the T4 properly and convert it to T3. You need results for Vit D, B12, folate and also for ferritin.
As reference ranges vary from lab to lab we always need to have the ranges when posting results. Can you add them please so that we can see where your FT4 lies within it's range.
TSH we know will be a little below range but that's not too much of a problem, it just means that your pituitary recognises that you are taking T4 and it doesn't need to tell the thyroid to make thyroid hormone so TSH will be low. This is very often the case.
The most important test, and the one that tells us if we are overmedicated, is FT3 but unfortunately the medical profession appears to be fairly ignorant of this and rarely does this test which is why so many of us do private tests.
Dose T4 adjusted a month ago 150 to 175mg
Testing after a dose change should be at least 6-8 weeks later, this allows time for levels to stabilise.
I think an S slipped into the thyroid hormones (TH) in the sentence with "your pituitary recognizes that you are taking T4 and it doesn't need to signal the thyroid to make TSH".
Are you the OP (Mrs_Jacqui_G) with a second user name?
I can’t honestly say I feel any different in the 175mg, to what I did on the 125mg
Neither did I when my GP kept increasing my Levo dose. I eventually found out myself (no thanks to the medical profession) that I was a poor converter of T4 to T3 so increasing Levo was never going to help, it was T3 that was needed. Unfortunately doctors fail to recognise the importance of T3 and rarely test FT3, it should always be tested along with TSH and FT4.
Please decide which user name you wish to use and consider deleting the other account. Having two user names and using them both gets very confusing for members who respond and it's possible they will not respond to posts from the different user name. I never log out, I don't see the point of that.
If you just want the basic thyroid panel - TSH, FT4 and FT3 - then Monitor My Health is the cheapest (they only do fingerprick test), other popular labs are Medichecks and Blue Horizon. Details and discount codes here:
Come back with results/ranges when you have new results and we can help further.
Raised ESR suggests that you have a condition causing inflammation. One cause of inflammation is autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) - have you ever had thyroid antibodies tested and were they raised?
Thank you for your suggestion and that was my plan but thought my post would be deleted if I closed the new account.
If you just "unfollow" by clicking on the tick at the top of the page (if you hover over the tick it will show LEAVE) then your posts will remain but show the username HIDDEN. The posts made with the user name you choose to keep will remain as normal.
The quoted TSH ranges only apply in health. When your thyroid dies, it doesn't just stop T4 production, but also an important fraction of T3. The rest of the T3 is made by body conversion of T4 to T3 by knocking off 1 iodine atom. So, when the thyroid no longer works, you can only give more T4 to a patient so that the conversion makes up for the T3 that used to be made direct by the thyroid gland. This needs more T4 to achieve this, so this extra T4 inhibits TSH production to levels lower than the healthy range. The useful TSH range on T4 only treatment is about 0.05-0.5 so you are well in this range.
And what would you say is a useful TSH range for combination T3/T4 treatment under the circumstances? I'm curious because my TSH now fluctuates between 0.07 and 0.05. My nurse practioner is cool with that but I will never be able to see a doctor again with those numbers. They would flip out (seen that there was a perceived need to lower my T4 with the TSH being only 0.03 below range).
I would say that, ideally,a s long as TSH is measurable you are probably well treated . It doesn't need to be in the healthy range. Ideally measurable, but my wife has been TSH-undetectable for 45 years on T4 and no problem.
Thanks, diogenes. That is reassuring. I find it very difficult to cut through the jungle of varying information and even research (often opposite opinions and results). I also find that information given by doctors (if any) is based on a system of inducing fear. It makes me very uncertain about what is the right thing to do and I find myself questioning my decisions (even if on the surface the results are great). Gaslighting works
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