Hi everyone, hope it’s okay to ask for advice for my daughter.
Shes 25, has hashis and has been taking thyroid meds for around 11 years now and is currently on 100/125 levo on alternate days.
Over the past few months, she’s lost all of her hair and has been having problems with her periods as well as some pain and suspects she has PCOS.
So I paid for some private testing and these are her results, hmm having trouble adding them, will try and post in the comments and see if that works.
Iron is all in range but nothing is average - its either high or low.
thyroid hormones seem ok-ish and have been pretty steady over the past few years. It didn’t do t3 but that’s been pretty steady too at around 5 with range 3.1 to 6.8.
the female hormones and proteins have quite a few out of range and while the medichecks info is interesting I have no idea what it all actually means in the context of her overall health.
Basically I just wanted some advice - has anyone else had similar issues, what treatment did they follow, what might we ask the gp and any ideas where to go from here?
Thanks 😊
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Mazes
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Her FT4 is only 32% of its range so likely her FT3 is also low. What a shame they didn't test that. Would expect on Levo only for her FT4 to be upper quarter of range not lower.
I can't comment on sex hormones or PCOS as I have no knowledge of those things.
What is she supplementing with?
What were her latest vitamin results - B12, D3 & folate?
It is essential to have OPTIMAL vitamin levels for thyroid hormone to work well.
Do you know if you had positive thyroid antibodies? Many with autoimmune thyroid disease aka Hashimoto's benefit from a gluten free diet. A smaller percentage of those also need to remove dairy from their diet to feel well. These are intolerances and will not show up on any blood test. It’s worth trialling a strictly gluten free diet to see if it helps symptoms.
It's ideal if you can always get the same brand of levo at every prescription. You can do this by getting GP to write the brand you prefer in the first line of the prescription. Many people find that different brands are not interchangeable.
Shes been gluten and dairy free for a few years now and is taking vit d, b12 and vit c. We haven’t tested vitamins apart from iron for a while - she’s a student so it’s me that pays for it and as well as testing for me, it’s getting quite costly! But I guess we need to check.
When she started losing her hair she asked the gp for more levo but had no luck. I’ve given her my prescription as I take ndt which I buy from the us. But I hadn’t clicked her t4 was still so low in range. Is it possible to buy levo privately here in the uk?
I know its extra costs and thats not at all easy at the moment. You might get lucky and find a helpful GP where she is that will run the tests for her although they can be weird about Vit D and only offer it once a year or not at all. Always worth trying NHS first.
If shes having issues and things aren't right then all you can do is check what we know that helps and thats vitamins.
Her ferritin she should be aiming for 90-100. Make sure shes getting plenty of red meat and pate would be easy for a student as a snack.
We usually recommend a good methyl B complex that would also contain folate that she isn't taking right now. That may well be low.
What B12 is she taking and how much?
Not to mention she likely needs more Levo.
For private Levo in the UK yuo need a prescription from an Endo/private doctor or maybe Roseway pharmacy have a prescribing service.
She’d coming to visit for a few days this week, so we’ll talk about food and vitamins then.
She has booked a gp appointment but it’s not for four weeks and then only on the phone - it’s crazy these days.
We can get a list together of tests to ask for and if it’s no go then I guess I need to pay for them. Although going by my past experience even if they agree to do them on the nhs they often miss things off or won’t do them at the times we need them done ☹️
My gp is pretty amenable so I can always ask for my levo dose (which doesn’t work for me, but I can still get) to be increased.
Thing is when your thyroid hormones aren't optimal it can throw the female hormone out and adrenal too. This is because thyroid, adrenals, ovaries are interlinked... If one is out the other two try to compensate. So my first go to would be to optmose the thyroid hormones and related vitamins before looking further afield.
GPs are so clueless and literal, if it in range no matter what signs symptoms you have they think all is well.... Sigh.... So you have to fight. Sometimes going with another person stops them being so dismissive so that is worth trying. Try to tease out the most open minded GP. Not easy I know as so many changes these days it's hard to get consistancy or even a face to face!
But as first steps an increase is what she needs and optomising the vits minerals. Then review in 6-8 weeks.
Over the past few years, I have been using the great advice here and in dr Peatfields/dr myhills books to start ndt and to sort out my vitamins and hormones so I know all this really, having seen the changes in myself.
My daughter has been so independent and so insistent that she’s okay that other than paying for tests every six months, I’ve not been so involved.
That’s all about to change 😂
so thank you for helping me see more clearly that I need to gently persuade her that she needs to be more active in managing her hashis and that hopefully this will help her other issues.
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Any Advice for my daughter, please!
Advice please! (part 2)
