thyroid results concern

[Cassandra]

Surgery phoned just now and said GP concerned about my results:

T4 - 27.8 range 12 - 22

TSH 0.04 range 2.7 - 4.2

T3 - 4.7

I am currently taking 125 levothyroxine - consultant had previously prescribed T3 privately but it didn’t agree with me at all. GP has now told me to cut to 100 levothyroxine and test again in 4 weeks. I feel ‘wired but tired’ and don’t sleep well through the night.

Vitamin levels etc all good according to private testing and only result which was odd was high B12.

Going gluten and dairy free I didn’t see any improvements and I still have excess weight which I can’t shift.

Can anyone advise if 100 dosage levothyroxine will still be too high.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

FT3 is most important result and it’s low

You’re a poor converter

suggest you reduce to 112.5mcg daily

At next Endo appointment request trial of liquid Levothyroxine

Meanwhile you could try splitting Levo as 2 doses - half waking and half at bedtime

[Cassandra in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you for your reply - I had never heard of liquid thyroxine - how does this differ from tablet medication. Do you think splitting the dose will make a difference. I will try to get an endo appointment and discuss with him - a few years back he prescribed the T3 for me but unfortunately made me feel worse. I had been waking at 2 am to take the thyroxine to ensure it didn’t interfere with my high blood pressure meds etc. Is there anything else that can be done regarding poor conversion. Once again your advice is very much appreciated.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Cassandra]

Please add most recent vitamin results

Previous post you never added any results

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Recurrent UTI common with low FT3

How much T3 were you prescribed and how did you start on it

Often takes a while to work out necessary dose and importantly dose timing of T3

[Cassandra in reply to SlowDragon]

I will try to look out my last vitamin testing tonight and post tomorrow

[SlowDragon Administrator]

liquid Levothyroxine often gives significant improvement

It’s expensive so they don’t like to prescribe

Almost always taken as 2 doses per day

[Cassandra in reply to SlowDragon]

Meant to ask can liquid be purchased privately in uk

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Cassandra]

Prescription only

At least £100 per bottle and lasts max of a month

Your endocrinologist could/should be able to give you a trial

But first get vitamin test results

Essential to maintain OPTIMAL vitamin levels

[jimh111]

I would reduce to 100 mcg, you might need 75 mcg but try 100. If you skip a couple of days it will bring your fT4 down quicker and make it easier to see how you respond.

When fT4 is high the body protects itself by reducing the rate at which it converts T4 to T3 and also produces rT3 which can also have an effect on T4 to T3 conversion. So see what your results are on 100 mcg.

[seveneleven]

Have you had cortisol tested? Low cortisol can often be a reason for not converting and especially when you can't tolerate T3. Would suggest you do a 4-point saliva cortisol test from Regenerus: regeneruslabs.com/products/...

Changing the brand of levothyroxine and improving vitamins are useful and may help your tolerance of levo but highly unlikely to actually make you start converting - your conversion ratio is terrible so warrants further testing for sure, especially if you're feeling 'wired but tired'. This could of course be the over-range T4 but is also an issue of low cortisol/adrenal fatigue.

You can also ask GP/endo to test serum cortisol at 9am, but unless it's seriously low, they'll ignore it, and the saliva testing gives you much more useful information.