My TSH is almost undetectable on Armour

[Suzanne-j]

I've been taking Armour for almost 6 years now and after all this time I seem to have settled on 3 grains.

I have however noticed a severe increase in my sweating. I mean it's horrendous and my sleeping is not great. My latest bloods (I only do the basic test every 3 months) shows my free t3 relatively top of the range and my free t4 lower end of the range. I can't seem to get the free t4 any higher without the free t3 being too much.

Could I be over medicated hence the sweating. I'm a bit at a loss of what to do because I know with Armour that my TSH will be supptrssed but could this be the reason for the sweating? Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you.

[TiggerMe Ambassador]

Sounds like the ratio of T3 & 4 isn't suiting you, lowering your dose a little and adding some levothyroxine might be a way forward unless levo is an issue for you?

[Suzanne-j in reply to TiggerMe]

Thank you for such a quick response, I only ever tried Levo on its own before armour and didn't get on with it on its own, but maybe a top up of Levo now I'm on armour also could help. Thank you. Any ideas with how much to cut it and how much Levo to add please? I'm solo with no Doctor so grateful for help.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to Suzanne-j]

Thanks to  Jazzw I've no experience of NDT 🤗

Well worth investigating sex hormone levels

[gabkad in reply to TiggerMe]

Agreed. Periomenopausal symptoms can be awful like that.

One of my friends is finally on HRT. She wrote me an email a couple of days ago that now she 'sleeps like a champ'. No hot flashes and she is sleeping 8 hours without getting up and having trouble or finding it impossible to go back to sleep. She realized now that despite all the weird supplements she's been trying for years and years, her problem was hormonal and nothing fixes it except hormones.

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to gabkad]

That is so pleasing to hear... it is a shame that the old bad press about hormones lingers which fuels the alternatives route

[gabkad in reply to TiggerMe]

My walking buddy is also on HRT now. She's 58 years old. I think what really pushed over over to the 'dark side' is when I told her how hormones prevent jowls. HA HA!

Many years ago, I watched an Oprah show where a trans guy told the audience that once he was on female hormones, the fat from his neck went down to his hips.

I stopped using HRT for a year when I was 45 years old and wow. One day I looked in the sideview mirror on the car and I saw jowls! You bet I got back on HRT really quickly.

And now with the testosterone, some sort of relatively 'no big deal' stuff has happened. Leg hair and armpit hair. I guess lack thereof was not due to thyroid issues. Eyebrows are also more pronounced. Don't ask about chin hair. I had that anyway. If there's more now, it's not significant. Testosterone is doing what it's supposed do to in re: S-E-X..... 'I'm baaaaack'....... Resurrection!

[TiggerMe Ambassador in reply to gabkad]

Jowls eh 😆 that's a new one to add to my armoury 👏👏😁

[Jazzw]

Well hang on, before you do anything with your Armour dose, have you ruled out the other things it could be?

On 3 grains of Armour, your TSH will be suppressed—that happens to nearly all of us on NDT. But your FT4 and FT3 are nicely in range. Doesn’t look like overmedication.

Can’t see a lot about you in previous posts but could it be anything to do with perimenopause/menopause?

Are your Vitamin D levels good? (Low Vit D can have all sorts of interesting effects).

[Suzanne-j in reply to Jazzw]

Thank you for your reply. Vit D very good, I supplement. I'm post menopause now and did try HRT but did not help with sweats, this is why I thought, even though I know it should be suppressed, is my TSH contributing to the really bad and worsening sweats because it only really started 2 years ago but has worsened with my increase in armour.

[Jazzw in reply to Suzanne-j]

I thought I was post menopause, LOL. My periods stopped about 7 years ago when I was 47-ish. I thought I was done.

Nope. 🙂 This year it would appear my oestrogen levels finally fell through the floor. I’ve had a whole host of symptoms including panic attacks (after thinking I’d got off quite lightly).

I’m starting to think we’re maybe never done with menopause… 😱

That said, interestingly, lowering my Armour dose a smidge probably has helped a bit—I need to do a blood test actually, quite intrigued to see what’s happened to my thyroid hormone levels). But I think dropping my dose has actually brought back my hot flushes a bit. Can’t blooming win.

[samaja in reply to Jazzw]

We are never done with menopause and the only difference is how comfortable of not we are postmenopausal and that can hugely depend on how deficient we are in progesterone which actually controls hot flushes when it is suitably balanced with oestrogen (most women have more oestrogen even when it's at its lowest than progesterone which drops off the cliff first in perimenopause). The problem is usually getting enough prog to really get the required P to E ratio.

[greygoose]

The TSH itself doesn't cause symptoms of any kind whether it's high or low. It's the thyroid hormones that cause symptoms if they're not at the right level. Maybe you need your FT4 higher - maybe even you need your FT3 higher. Or lower. But it has nothing to do with the TSH.

[Suzanne-j in reply to greygoose]

Excellent thank you. That is what I should have asked.

[greygoose in reply to Suzanne-j]

You're welcome.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Strongly recommend you get B12, folate, ferritin and Vitamin D tested before experimenting with reducing NDT and adding Levo

Low B12 can cause sweating, especially at night

[Suzanne-j in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you so much. I will speak with my haematologist because I can not take b12 or ferritin/iron/folate etc because of a blood condition but I will certainly speak about it next visit. My vit D is good I get it tested regularly and I supplement.

[psalm18]

My October reading is <0.001, so also was my Aug reading. The most worrying thing is that I haven't been put on any medication yet despite Graves disease diagnosis about 11 days ago.I'm beginning to feel very light headed and running a high temperature and don't know what to do.

My next appointment would be next week.

[greygoose in reply to psalm18]

How was your Graves' diagnosed? Just by the low TSH? Having a low TSH when taking thyroid hormone replacement is an entirely different thing to having a low TSH with Graves'.

The only sure and certain way to diagneose Graves is to have all the different thyroid antibodies tested. And if TSI antibody is over-range, then you do have Graves'. If it isn't there has to be another explanation for your low TSH - doctors often just guess at the diagnosis of Graves' without doing the correct testing.

So, if you have other results apart from the TSH, start your own post, giving all test results with ranges, and people will advise you what to do.

[psalm18]

I was diagnosed based on the attached test result.

Then another test last week (Oct) and here is the result, which still showed TSH as <0.001

TSH <0.001

FT3 6.3 ( reduced from 7.8 in Aug)

FT4 19.4 ( increased from 16.4 in Aug)

Endo will see me next week, but I'm suffering from headaches, body pains, lightheadedness).

Result

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to psalm18]

There’s no range on Trab antibodies test…..but at 5.7 it’s highly likely positive for Graves’ disease

because I can not take b12 or ferritin/iron/folate etc because of a blood condition but I will certainly speak about it next visit

Well they still need testing

[psalm18 in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes, I was diagnosed with Graves' almost 2 weeks ago. Then tested again last week and still the same with the exception of FT3 decreasing to 6.3, FT4 increasing to 19.2, and TSH remaining <0.001. I believe appointment with endo next week will be to discuss medication medication.

[tattybogle in reply to SlowDragon]

just to let you know SD ,,, OP is Suzanne-j ( on armour , with the b12 qoute )

psalm18 ( recently diagnosed hyper) is different person .

psalm18 it's better to start your own (new) post , to avoid such confusion .

[samaja]

Another possible culprit for sweating is cortisol. Have you had it tested too?

[Suzanne-j in reply to samaja]

I had the Dutch test recently and I was off the scale high. I didn't realise that it caused sweating! Thank you for this!

[samaja in reply to Suzanne-j]

Too high or too low cortisol can definitely cause sweating and impact thyroid meds absorption.