Blood test results

[5ESU]

Help! I received my blood test results today and had a little panic!! I wondered if I was over medicated.

I’m on 50 micrograms Levothyroxine which I realise now that I shouldn’t have taken on the morning of the test. I took the Levo at 5.20am and had the blood test at 10.20am.

The results were:-

Serum free T3 3 (down from 3.71 in April unmedicated)

Serum free T4. 29 ( up from 19.8 in April unmedicated)

TSH. 0.47 ( down from 4.43 in April unmedicated )

Does iodine help with conversion of T4 to T3?

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Do you have reference ranges for each of those tests? This is important as they are different at each lab.

How do you feel?

What are you supplementing with?

What were your latest results for ferritin, folate, B12 & D3?

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.

[5ESU in reply to Jaydee1507]

I haven’t felt as good as I did when I first started Levo. The reference range for the first the GP’s is

Serum Free T3 3.1-6.8

Serum T4 11-22

Serum TSH 0.27 -4.2

The unmedicated readings were Medichecks

Free T3 3.1-6.8

Free thyroxine 12-22

TSH 0.27-4.2

Ferritin was high 350

I don’t know about folate (I take 800mcg/day). B12 has always been good and Vit D was high 175. I take supplements .

[Jaydee1507 Administrator in reply to 5ESU]

If this is a GP test then ask to be retested and this time around remember you need 24 hours between taking Levo and the blood draw. Your FT4 may well have been within range at least although you do seem to have a conversion problem.

I'm assuming that you're a small person as 50mcgs is a very low dose for the average person.

As you're supplementing then your vitamins look OK.

You might want to email [e-mail] for a list of T3 friendly Endo's.

[5ESU in reply to Jaydee1507]

Thank you, I’m learning so much!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to 5ESU]

That’s a high dose of folate

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Retest correctly and include thyroid antibodies and vitamins

Stop any supplements that contain biotin 5-7 days before test

Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins

List of private testing options and money off codes

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins

medichecks.com/products/adv...

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

Only do private testing early Monday or Tuesday morning.

Link about thyroid blood tests

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Link about Hashimoto’s

thyroiduk.org/hypothyroid-b...

Symptoms of hypothyroidism

thyroiduk.org/wp-content/up...

Tips on how to do DIY finger prick test

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Medichecks and BH also offer private blood draw at clinic near you, or private nurse to your own home…..for an extra fee

[greygoose]

Does iodine help with conversion of T4 to T3?

No, it doesn't. Iodine is one of the ingredients of thyroid hormone, T4 having 4 atoms for every molecule of thyroxine, and T3 has three. Conversion is the removal of one of those iodine molecules.

Ferritin was high 350

But did you have the CRP tested at the same time? CRP is an inflammation marker and high inflammation levels cause falsely high readings of ferritin. So the two should always be tested together.