lower t4 super low tsh armour

[DeedellaD]

Hello!

I am 20 years deep at age 40 into basically helping doctors regulate my thyroid after a horrible medical overdose at age 17 my thyroid was never the same ….perhaps it was like that as a kid from a traumatic move because I gained 40 pounds seemingly overnight, however I didn’t become medicated until around 18 or 19

moving along , it’s always been super hard to lose weight. I have to stay super active that’s just my body but I live in chronic pain ain’t fatigue as I also have Sjogren’s disease and I am a single mother of highly active child. So I decided to switch to Armour with my doctor after tirosint 100, used to be 88 didn’t seem to be helping much since motherhood with t3 at at 15mcg to 20 mcg.

Well now my TSH is .005 at .1 Because I take T3 and it takes your TSH it was always OK but that’s a bit low even though I don’t feel hyper. I might have some symptoms but I really don’t know I did manage to lose 10 pounds but that’s because I have been eating less and the doctor scared me about some calcifications that were noted on the lumbar spine with retrolisthesis etc etc etc right before I totaled my car but that’s a whole other deal… so my question is should I get this brain MRI she ordered to look at my pituitary gland my T4 is in the lower normal range my T3 is in the higher normal range like the highest and yet my TSH is .005 I clearly have way too much T3 I know my doctor before she retired who prescribed it said take half on Saturday or Sunday but I’m thinking I might have to take a half most days and a couple days for because T3 has a half shelflife I just don’t see how this is optimal without taking it separately and I don’t know anybody takes it in one pill unless they break it in half and it’s the right dose can anybody shed some light?

Thank you in advance it is 2:30 in the morning in the United States and I better sleep sorry it is so long I am so tired of helping guide doctors on my thyroid and my iodine is in the 30s but the doctor I trust told me when you don’t make thyroid Hormones iodine doesn’t matter.? I don’t know how I feel about that however.

I honestly feel like taking my thyroid medicine hasn’t done me any good even though the ultrasound shows my thyroid has been damaged from autoimmune. I went years without it years ago and I just wish I didn’t have to take it anymore I’ve been prescribed so many things I didn’t take 90% of them and I just feel like nothing affects anything unless my stress is down and I am able to keep my heart rate up and have time to work out being in chronic pain with fatigue homeschooling my daughter it’s a bit hard but I’m trying to do the best I can thank you for reading this my doctor is 28 years old and she doesn’t know what time she was trying To put me on a statin also I’m always borderline high glucose and LDL.

I eat pretty healthy But stress higher After two condos in Florida I have been mold ridden and ran me and my daughter out living with stressful family it’s been quite the past three years as well as taking care of my grandmother after a certain thing that was pushed and people made her dementia go bad but ever since I stopped nursing my daughter years ago and had my daughter he’s now six I have never been able to lose the 40 pounds unless I went super super low carb which is not supposed to even be healthy says some. For thyroid. It’s maddening. SOS lol we have no endocrinologist around here that take my insurance and if they do and even if they don’t and they let you pay out of pocket they’re literally booking six months out it’s so sad thank you for your input in advance

[pennyannie]

Hello DeedellaD and welcome to the forum :

When taking any form of thyroid hormone replacement containing T3 you will likely have a low supressed TSH - it does not matter - Quality of Life and relief of symptoms are important and the evidence of a low suppressed TSH meaning you are ' over medicated ' or dangerous questionable as if your T3 and T4 are still in the ranges - job done.

On Armour or any Natural Desiccated Thyroid - the blood tests do not express in the same way as when on Big Pharma synthetic T3 and T4 thyroid hormone replacement.

On NDT - once optimally medicated - you will likely have a suppressed /low TSH - likely a T4 lower than when on T4 but with a T3 much higher than when on T4 monotherapy.

No thyroid hormone replacement works well until your ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D are up and maintained at optimal levels - and down regulation of T3 can also occur through any physiological stress ( emotional or physical ) depression, dieting and ageing harder to manage, but worth a mention.

NDT was the original treatment for hypothyroidism and you treat to the relief of symptoms as it was used successfully for over 100 years and long before we had the science of blood tests, ranges and guidelines - all introduced when Big Pharma launched their own T3 and T4 treatment options.

This is a UK based website - you might like to dip into the Elaine Moore Graves Disease Foundation - it is a Stateside website - ask on their forum if someone can recommend an endo / doctor in your area / zip code - you might be lucky and find someone there who can support you closer to home.