Just received my latest bloods form which only requests TSH and fT4... since starting T3 a year ago they have never requested a fT3 result ( I've added them to the form for my own benefit)
Is this the norm? Just curious
It's almost as if I'm prescribed T3 but they don't acknowledge it 🤷♀️
well obviously it’s ludicrous to not test Ft3
It's infuriating they don't test it for all but strikes as totally incompetent if they prescribe it when they make such a song and dance about letting you have it 😕 I shan't add it in future... perhaps acting dumb is best from here on..... I'll just go on my private results
Honestly much of it is down to the narrowness of their existence. They live in a bubble. In fact many professions don’t have a clue what each other do these days. No connections. Bubble communities are many. The art world is a bubble etc etc. However the NHS is a bubble in itself, with a whole host of other bubbles working in relative close proximity (even within the original bubble itself) but holding surprisingly little knowledge of each other. Somewhere along the way there was at one time a collective wisdom, which now appears to be absent. What you are suggesting would require a seismic shift in outlook. AND it’s necessary, if it’s to work at all.
The few people I know who work or retired from the NHS have a mindset not dissimilar to military folk... they are always bamboozled when I point out their low Vit and Min levels, as in all their career they have never looked beyond 'Normal' results, they are the most unhealthy people I know in their health bubble 😕
I make a point of requesting my T3 along with the normal T4 and TSH. At my Drs surgery they have to hand write T3 on the blood form and sign it. It always gets checked. If you are on T3 medication then they should definitely check it. Otherwise how can they monitor you. I get mine checked every 3 months without fail. At first I had to persuade them to include T3. Now they insist it’s done as time has gone on. Also you need the records on your NHS file just in case you end up in hospital or a nursing home one day in the distant future. It’s proof you need t3 in my little world.
You are treated very differently to me!!
The strange thing is they don't know my fT3 level, last time I added it was January at 65% which was actually before I started on Roma supplied by them (I do regular checks) and don't question the dose.... they do know my fT4 is mid range and are constantly trying to lower the dose! Which I bat away
Hi - was the form issued by your GP Surgery? If so., it may be that the lab will not do a T3 test if requested by them - and they are just restricted by NHS rules.
Of course, if you have added T3 to the form yourself and it gets done, it’’s not that!
If it’s a printed form, it might be something as simple as the software they use to auto generate a form being programmed NOT to include T3 as standard, and the Surgery has not bothered to make any manual amendments.
My Consultant posts blood forms directly to me which just say ‘T Endo’ on them and this covers everything. Also as it’s issued by a Consultant it means I can go to my local test facility at any time, whereas GP tests are only done during restricted hours.
Quite how we are supposed to be able to understand all the rules and regs that apply in different areas is one of life’s mysteries !
I agree. Protocols are written for staff not patients and yet much of the time we are expected to jump through hoops we have no idea exist. Medics live in a ‘sealed off’ world from the rest of us. Too many of them living in an unnaturally narrow experience of life, never mind the breadth of medicine itself.
McPammy
This is the first one to include T4, previously only TSH which has been at 0.05 the whole time so triggers a fT4 as my recent one did when the GP insisted they needed to take one bloods but refused to add fT3! 😵
Perhaps because it states that I am on Lio the lab will test anyway??
It's an odd place betwixt the two
hello Eeyore
Is that an NHS test? My GP requests T3 but the lab ignore it and my NHS Endo doesn’t test T3. I get mine done via Medichecks or privately via private GP!
This is from my NHS Endo... the best I've ever had from GP was after this note to lab... Note History: IRRITATINGLY NO T4 RESULT - WE NEED A T4 RESULT ON THIS LADY PLEASE NOT A TSH
They actually took my my word for it when I asked for a referral due to my fT3 being below range on a Medichecks test
That’s great your doctor is chasing!! Yes, I’ve heard some just say all we need is TSH 🙄 and I had that from one NHS Endo, too. Some understand you need all three. It’s also good they did a referral on your low T3 without seeing results. I am suprised too that they are giving you T3 but not testing. It seems relatively unusual for NHS Endos to even consider T3 in my experience. I had one say would I like a prescription, another say it causes more problems than it cures, another say absolute tosh that low T3 causes symptoms- all from same Endo team!! It’s no wonder I’ve spent the last 4 years utterly confused 😂
This was 18 months ago once I'd had a private test and I realized I had to request to see an Endo, so I think he was just saving face being a bit arsy with the lab 🙄
I think as long as the prescriptions keep coming I shall keep quiet about their incompetence as I'm far more qualified than they are about my treatment 😁
This sounds like a good plan 😊 S long as the T3 script is there 🙌
blood test request form 
obtaining T3 on NHS query
Just had T3 level tested by NHS
