I’ve had increasing symptoms of fatigue, weight gain, cold all the time, dry skin and loosing hair at an alarming rate. I’ve had a very stressful year in work and put a lot of the symptoms down to stress/depression this was causing. I now have a new job that I love so an huge reduction in stress and still have significant symptoms. I had a test a few months ago that showed folate at 1.9ug/L so I am supplementing this at 5mg a day. I also have b12 injections every 6 weeks due to pernicious anaemia. I have a family history of underactive thyroid. However my dr is certain there is nothing wrong with my thyroid.
Thank you!
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Mermaidandaman
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I’ve asked for thyroid antibodies but nhs won’t do ft3. I can’t do the finger prick blood test, I’ve tried a few times and can’t get enough blood. So I’m not sure how to get a private test.
It looks at the amount of iron in your blood to see if you need to supplement as you can have low ferritin and high iron, so supplementing based on low ferritin only might not be a good idea
Depending where you are in the country there are clinics popping up that will do blood draws. I've got one booked with Randox in a few weeks time and it's based in John Lewis!
If not Like Dippy says Medicheck's will supply the kit and have an agreement with various hospitals or you can get a home visit
Some people manage to get the nurse to fill a private vial if they are booked in for another blood draw
The NHS does test T3. It may be your GP or their particular lab that refuses, but it's not across the board.
Private test companies always offer a veinous blood draw option. Have a look at Monitor My Health (which is an NHS lab) and Medichecks web sites.
Before I got into doing my finger prick tests I used to book an appointment with the surgery nurse via the administrator and pay the surgery for the blood draw. It was £10 at the tiime.
To improve finger prick tests blood flow you must be well hydrated and warm and standing up if you can. I did one this morning. I drank a glass of water at 6am and again some more as I got up at 8am. I put PJs and a fluffy dressing gown on (I would not normally have a dressing gown on) and then washed and soaked my hands in warm water for several minutes. Then I jiggle my arms about and walk on the spot for a few minutes and the blood flows easily. If I'm dehydrated, cold, haven't warmed my hands or jiggled about I can struggle with blood volume.
Your FT4 is far too low but it's in range so they assume this is "normal"....not so!
Normal means nothing....we aim to find the point within the range where our symptoms are resolved.
TSH at 1.83 is too high but not as high as we might expect with an FT4 at the bottom of the range.
A combination of low FT4 with low-ish TSH suggests secondary hypothyroidism, a condition where thyroid function is impaired due to problems in the pituitary gland.
Your combination of symptoms are textbook hypothyroidism
Tick of all the symptoms on this list and stick it under your doctor's nose!! You can print off a tick list
What time of day were these bloods done? Thyroid blood tests are best done close to 9am and fasting to achieve the highest TSH, which is what you’re looking to achieve in terms of securing a diagnosis.
Also, biotin affects blood test results (not just thyroid) and it’s therefore essential to withhold it for a week before testing.
Your FT4 is woeful. I agree with the others who say you now need to get an insight into your FT3 levels.
Private testing is the way forward, we pretty much all do it on this forum.
These two tests are currently the cheapest I believe:
I too initially struggled to get enough blood. The following really helped me: definitely drink a big glass of water 20 minutes or so before testing. Next, soak hand in hot water for a good minute, dry it off then rotate arm in circular motion a few times to really get the blood flowing towards your hand.
I found that my ring finger works well, massaging the palm towards the finger of choice. Be careful not to squeeze the finger pad because this can apparently damage the blood cells, as can scraping your finger on the edge of the vial. If that isn’t productive, try another finger, repeating the hand soaking and arm swinging steps if necessary.
Leave plenty of time, you don’t want to be rushing.
It’s worth persevering with home testing because it gives you control, plus it keeps costs down.
If all else fails, there are companies with nurses who will visit you at home and draw the blood.
Or there’s this service from Superdrug Clinic where they’ll draw blood on behalf of medichecks, but it’s only available at certain branches
All those symptoms point to underactive thyroid. Ask if you can have trial period for 6months. Unless your becoming menopausal, similar symptoms. Good luck.
just as an update - I had another appointment with a less senior dr. She really listened to me and felt that endocrine input would be useful so she wrote to them. They have agreed to accept my referral and the letter says “based on the blood results and symptom's we agree this patient needs to be reviewed” so I’m hopeful this is a step in the right direction!
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Is this is good as reviews? Told so? For all
Blood results normal?
All results in normal range.
Got my results 'all normal'
