Asking about thyroid levels

[Chrysali]

I hope that people on this wonderful forum can help out. My question is: after being on the correct dose of levo, how long can levels of t4 and t3 continue to rise for ?

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

Finding the correct dose isn't necessarily straight forward... people often take years to find their sweet spot

It can be effected by your vitamin and minerals levels and other hormones, if these were low and have since improved you would hope to see some improvement in wellbeing and conversion levels... or vice versa

So it's a bit of a moving target 🤗

[PurpleNails Administrator]

Once you have been on a consistent unchanged dose which isn’t causing changes to levels (& you are stable & optimal for you) then you are on your correct dose. Not the other way around.

What makes you say you have the correct dose? If you continued to rise above range or above your optimal (which may be lower in range) you’d had to adjust dose down.

Most find 6-8 weeks shows how a dose will settle, but their are always exceptions & others say they don’t really know if they are optimal for 12 weeks.

Small gradual adjustments & patience can often be the best approach.

[Chrysali in reply to PurpleNails]

Thank you for that, I will give at least 8 weeks. I didn’t mean that I am on the correct dose, but that I am trying to find it. I should say that I have abandoned my doctor because he was dosing me based solely on TSH. Therefore, I am trying to find my own way through this , with some help from my lab doctor and this very supportive forum

[HealthStarDust in reply to Chrysali]

May I ask what you mean by a lab doctor?

[Chrysali in reply to HealthStarDust]

The man who works in my lab and tests my blood is a doctor, although not a practicing physician. My endocrinologist reduced my medication because my TSH was 1.8 and after that I felt unwell and- you guessed it- the TSH rose to 3.

At that point I decided to be my own doctor for a while. I very slowly increased the levo dose and I aim to test every month.And that’s how I have frequent dealings with the lab.(This is all privately, I live in Cairo.) It’s good to get support from this forum!

[HealthStarDust in reply to Chrysali]

Thank you for explaining. FYI I think the forum usually advises to test levels every 6-8 weeks after a dose change at a minimum.

I really hope you’ll figure it out on your own as many have on the forum, which in itself is hopeful at least. And, good for you for finding the forum!

[jimh111]

Levels will be stable after four to six weeks. I wouldn't waste money on testing too often.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

Most labs won’t test before 8 week interval

[jimh111 in reply to Hidden]

That’s fine. A general strategy is to test after four to six weeks to get a ball park figure, then every three months or so. I think we tend to do too much testing.

[Hidden in reply to jimh111]

We certainly do.

You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it 😉

[HealthStarDust in reply to jimh111]

I agree. This may be so, however, symptoms either resolving or getting worse often have a lag. Thus, it’s still worth waiting a bit longer if it can be helped, or we may be tempted to increase or decrease dose based on test results and on a dose that’s wrong for us anyway. But, I accept we are all different and many things come into play when thinking about how quickly or slowly one should change dose including the burden on the body due to other conditions or medication changes.

Not an easy choice.