I have results today 10 weeks after a small (37.5mg week) increase in levothyroxine.
With the last blood test I imagined I was getting to the fine-tuning stage - symptoms were improving along with range percentages being something like in line.
However, both FT4 and FT3 have dropped significantly since then.
The test was done as per protocol and nothing else has changed in the way I take the medication so I’m struggling to understand why this might be..
Could it be a lab error?
Should I retest now or should I wait again?
Results
13.01.25
FT4 14.9 (12-22) FT3 4.8 (3.1-6.8)
04.11.24
FT4 17.0 (12-22) FT3 6.1 (3.1-6.8)
I do still feel under-medicated - several symptoms have returned, but I am much less tired these days so these latest results are very confusing.
Would very much appreciate any thoughts.
I thank you.
Written by
Thywotsit
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Yes, good point, I did consider that I might just need more now after further settling of hormones, although I am already taking more than my size would suggest I might need on average.
I am 58 kilos
Taking Eutirox (850mcg week)
125 x 6 days and 100 for 1 day
Tiromel 15.6mcg daily split dose.
Supplementing with
3 arrows iron 1 per day
Vitamin D K2 3000 per day with Magnesium 384mg elemental.
time of last doses is needed to interpret fT4 / fT3 results sensibly.
what TSH doing now ?... it's not the most important result , but it's easier to figure out what's happening if we have the full picture.
lots of possible reasons for lower T4/T3 levels now . unlikely to be an error as such. much more likely to be eg. hashimoto's fluctuations (assuming have positive TPOab ?) , ie unrelated to dose change. thyroid relaese of T4/T3 wobbling up and down as it's being damaged .
or it could be you've overshot slightly and deiodinases have increased conversion of T4 to Reverse T3 /reduced conversion of T4 to T3/ speeded up recycling of T3 to T2 etc as a consequence.
body's thyroid hormone balancing system is fiendishly complex , so sometimes fT4 / fT3/ TSH don't seem to make any sense with just one snapshot .
When unsure what's going on , its good idea to wait a few more wks without making any changes and retest ~ a longer view sometimes helps make sense of what went on .
my fT4 / fT3 do inexplicable things from time to time .and sometimes bear no relation to symptoms . my TSh is usually a bit more in line with dose changes / symptoms , but just for fun it seems to lag behind what's happening by 6 months , sometimes i swear it's "answering the question before last" like that Two Ronnie' sketch .
but sometime to be honest , we just don;t know why, ... best we can do is keep observing consistently and adjusting carefully in response to what we observe .
"if in doubt ,wait a bit longer than you want to , and adjust by a bit less than you think" is the best way to stay out of too much trouble .
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