thyroid test results

[Disey]

I wrote on here before about my results and you really helped. I’ve been trying to raise my ft4 and lower my tsh. I had been on 25mg levothyroxine and increased in increments of 25. After the first increase to 50 my tsh went down and ft4 up, increased to 75, first test after that ft4 rose slightly but so did my tsh, doctor said to continue at 75 to see what happened in next 3 months and now my results show my ft4 has risen but my tsh has also risen, it’s now out of range,

Serum TSH level 4.56 mIU/L [0.27 - 4.2]; Above high reference limit

Serum free T4 level 16.3 pmol/L [12.0 - 22.0]

Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

[greygoose]

Probably because you're not converting that T4 to T3. You need your FT3 and FT4 tested at the same time to see how well you convert.

That said, your FT4 is still too low, only about 40% through the range. It needs to be quite a bit higher than that.

But never expect a linear connection between TSH levels and FT4 levels, it doesn't work like that. Far too many variables.

[Disey in reply to greygoose]

The doctor has said to wait another 3 months and test again but I am feeling so tired, just exhausted, drained etc and I’m thinking 3 months is a long time to feel like this, do you think I should perhaps request an increase to 100, see how that goes rather than weight another 3 months?

[greygoose in reply to Disey]

Three months is much too long. He should have increased your dose straight away on seeing those results. But doctors know next to nothing about thyroid and how it works, and tend to make it up as they go along. Your results are not going to be better in three months, nor six months, nor a year! And will probably get worse. At some point he has to increase your dose so it might as well be now. If it were me, I'd be getting a bit stroppy by now!

[tattybogle]

The way i see it ,,, you add bit of T4...

the pituitary 'realises' the T4 level is higher, and in response it lowers the TSH a bit.

but then as time goes on , the pituitary realises that even though the T4 went up , it's not enough and/ or it realises you are not getting enough T3 from the T4. ... so it starts raising the TSH level again to 'ask' for more.