Hi, so I finally received my FT3 results for January. Never had FT3 tested before.
It says I'm at 3.1 pmol/L, which is at 0% range.
Is that considered good?
I've shared my other results of TSH and FT4 from October and December.
Back in early October, the results showed "normal" but I was experiencing increasing extreme fatigue and cold intolerance. It got worse and was dismissed by the GP as a potential thyroid condition.
Only after I increased my own thyroid dosage from 87.5mg to 93.75 did I finally feel gradually better over time.
During this time in November, I also changed my medication from the (copper box) levothyroxine to Teva as I realized it had lactose fillers and thought maybe that could be a potential reason.
Throughout November and December, the energy levels were inconsistent and I still experienced cold intolerance, brain fog and heavy-leaden body for most of the day. Usually I feel better from afternoon onwards. Every 2-3 days I would get some or all of those symptoms together and had limited energy levels. I was only able to focus on work for a couple of hours in a day.
Mid December I started alternating between 93.75 to 96.875.
I only started feeling more normal in the last week of December till now. However, there are still days where I still experience cold intolerance, brain fog and heavy-leaden body. The number of hours experiencing these symptoms are much reduced and I can work longer hours but it's still not as consistent as I would like to be.
I decided to go for FT3 testing myself in January to evaluate the option of taking T3 as I suspected there could be an issue with T4 to T3 conversion. and below are the results.
The blood tests are usually taken in the morning with NHS before 9am. For the recent test, Superdrug didn't have an earlier slot so it was taken at 10am.
Suspect you are poor at converting to T4 to T3 with this ONE result.
How long have you been diagnosed and on levo ? If fairly early the attacks on thyroid could be swinging levels around too. I had this.
I note from your last post you asked about when to do the blood test so assume it is morning with no levo till after. T3 levels change during the day, so getting consistent readings is key to understanding what is going on.
From you other post you had all your vits and iron levels done too -
Look pretty good to me but more experienced members may comment
I've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism for over 30 years. Had it since I was a child. I suspect I always had fluctuating energy levels but that was always supported by high amounts of coffee drinking. Brain fog and body fatigue was also common but combated by high amounts of caffeine.
In December, Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPO) levels was 185 but January it's 187 so I'm not quite sure if there's an increase in attack?
You would be best to do another test in 6 weeks to confirm these results.
However if the levels remain similar your low FT3 must be causing you symptoms of undermedication! Caffeine is not the answer
So, you are taking 93.75 to 96.875.mcg levo.Your T4 to T3 conversion looks very poor....not sure how you coped with such a low level of T3......well you have been struggling!
I suggest your next step is to increase your levo to 100mcg daily....you have plenty room to do this. Test again after 6 weeks and review your dose and symptoms
It is possible that you may eventually need to add T3, but try increasing T4/ levo first
For good health every cell in the body must be flooded with T3 by way of an adequate and constsnt supply
Low cellular T3 = poor health!⁰
Your TPO is high which suggests thyroid autoimmune disease/ Hashimoto's your levels may fluctuate as the thyroid gland is attacked and extra hormones are dumped in the blood....the levels will fall again after the attack.
I don't suppose you know how long Hashi's has been with you. If a long time then the damage inflicted on the thyroid can eventually cause it to struggle to produce thyroid hormones which means you will rely onlife-long thyroid hormone replacement ....which is what you are having to do possibly in increasing doses.
Thank you for your reply! I was really struggling in November and most of December - I had some good days but other days I couldn't really think coherently and struggle to focus.
After alternating the dosage in December, I started feeling some positive emotions, if that make sense. In October, November and December, my mood was usually low as well and I had no zest to do much.
I do some runs from time to time - as that seemed to increase metabolism and trigger some conversion? But I realized lately overexercise might also likely deplete T3.
There are instances where my body starts heating up from one moment of feeling cold to suddenly warmth. I'm not sure how it gets triggered up. Hence I also suspect my T4 to T3 conversion is not consistent.
Do you know what would be a typical number that most people feel good for a FT3 level?
In late November, I tried increasing from 87.5 to 100mg. After 5 days, I had heart palpitations so I went down to 93.75mg. And gradually moved to alternating days in mid-late December.
Most of my life I was on 75mg. Between 2018 to 2022, I was on 100mg. But in May 2022, 100mg became too much and was adjusted down to 87.5mg.
I'm at about 52kg.
Currently on gluten free and dairy free diet. I started becoming strict with the diet since end December. Before that I was mostly dairy free but occasionally gluten.
In the previous October and December tests, I would have taken the levothyroxine before I went for the blood tests (which I now realized wasn't ideal). The January test, I made sure took my last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test.
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Blood test results - odd ?!? 
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