Strange Result

[Guineapiggy]

I recently did my thyroid tests.2.1.24 Monitor My Health taking 87.5 mcg levothyroxine, 12.5 mcg liothyronine for the last 8 weeks.

TSH 0.02 mu/L

FT3 4.3 pmol/L 32.43%

FT4 18.7 pmol/L 67%

Based on these results, I decided that I should be able to make a bigger step in my liothyronine to 25 mcg.

Typically, just after this, my surgery rang to arrange my annual thyroid tests!!

11.1 24 NHS taking 87.5 mcg levothyroxine, 25 mcg liothyronine for the previous 7 days.

TSH 0.03 mu/L

FT3 5.82 pmol/L 103.87%

FT4 15.6 pmol/L 56%

Strange decrease in FT4 and slight increase in TSH, but a large increase in FT3.

I did not experience any hyper symptoms. Is this result likely to be as a result of only taking the increased dose for a very short time? As the half life of T3 is very short, I was wondering if this would be an accurate level or is too soon to tell.

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

Sods law but that is a BIG leap in T3 to do in one go... when T3 is like triple strength T4!

It will be an accurate result of what is in your blood however many hours after your last dose but T3 acts fast on raising blood levels but it's a longer job reactivating receptors then getting it all into the cells

Your fT4 will have dropped as your system will be dumping it to rT3

[Guineapiggy in reply to TiggerMe]

I know it was a big leap but, on lio, my FT3 level was 35.14% when I first started on 6.25 mcg. I increased to 12.5 mcg about 8 weeks later and it went down to 32.43%. Based on this it seemed reasonable to assume that another quarter of a tablet would not produce much of a therapeutic increase so I thought I would experiment.

I have decided that I may go back to 12.5 mcg for a longer trial before going to 18.75 mcg to see what happens.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to Guineapiggy]

I'd have thought leaving it at 18.75mcg would be the next holding dose to see how things settle? It could be that your cells are soaking up the fT3 well leaving less in the blood stream.... certainly I found this when I started out and gradually got up to 25mcg split dosing and then as my body adjusted and came back to life I came back down to 15mcg in one dose which works better for me...

Do you split dose? Have you tried taking it as one dose to see the effect?

There is a strong link between cortisol and T3 uptake so taking your dose when your cortisol level is in a good place seems to help a lot

[Guineapiggy]

Thanks. I have never split the dose, except on the day before testing. I take everything around 3 am, away from the time hubby brings me tea in bed at 7 am. I used to take my Metavive with my tea and still had good results.

It may well be that my cells are still adjusting, so I will go back first to 12.5 mcg for a longer period and then retest.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to Guineapiggy]

Probably best... creeping up on the sweet spot often has the better long term stable outcome 🤗

[Guineapiggy]

Thanks for your comments. Puts things into perspective!