Very strange face to face with my endocrinologist .

[Simplyred57]

I posted last month after a DEXA scan showed I had osteoporosis in my spine ( osteopenia previously, and a strange letter saying my GP to work with me to get my TSH within range, totally panicked and asked for a face to face appointment.

I had my appointment on Monday , I had not seen him face to face for about 3 years ( telephone appointment usually) and the 1st thing he said was my eyes were very puffy and to increase my T4 back to 100mcg a day as based on my weight and height it’s not high enough and reduce T3 to 5 mcg a day ,( I have put weight on and not feeling great ) my levels in November were

TSH 0.05

FT4 20 ( 12-23)

FT3 5.1 ( 3-6.8 )

This was on a dose of 4 days at 75mcg & 3 days at 100mcg & 10mcg of T3. ( previous to that I was on 2 days 75& 5 days at 100 ) when I felt really well but he was banging the TSH drum so I agreed reluctantly to reduce again.

I totally was thrown, he said do you want to stop T3 🤷🏼‍♀️I said absolutely not , he then totally brushed over the GP taking over my care as per letter 🤷🏼‍♀️so I agreed to increase my thyroxine and said yes I will reduce T3 as he then started to talk about the dangers of low TSH AGAIN but that was out of pure relief that he was not stopping it ( I had all my results from 2019 and told him my TSH had not budged from 0.05 no matter what variation , but I’m absolutely not reducing my T3 , and on a slightly higher dose of thyroxine my FT3 went up to 6 where I did feel better.

So my question is do I have to increase thyroxine as slowly as I decreased it , I feel I really need it and am anxious to get my levels up a bit, but don’t want to rush it.

I’m having bloods done on Monday then will start the new regime , he is testing antibodies this time as he gave me the blood form FT4 - FT3 haha but No TSH 😂

[GlowCoach Administrator]

Its really up to you by how much you increase. We are all different an some like to take things in baby steps to avoid symptoms, others can take a slightly larger increase in one go.

Exactly what changes will you be making?

[Simplyred57 in reply to GlowCoach]

Hi GlowCoach I am going back up to 100mcg thyroxine 7 days from 4 days@75mcg & 3 days 100mcg and keeping T3 at 10mcg for now, I felt good and my numbers were good on 2 days @ 75mcg & 5 days 100mcg and that’s were I would like to be , but my Endo is thinking 100mcg 7 days and 5mcg but I’m not sure 🤔 he’s thinking because my T3 dropped so much when I reduced thyroxine that I will need less T3 if my T4 is higher, therefore I will convert more and need to take less T3.

[Simplyred57]

Exactly my thoughts , he seemed to drop the TSH argument when I produced all my results to prove my TSH had never moved since 2019 and I’ve had lots of combinations of T3 & T4, it took me months to gradually reduce my dose of T4 as I’m very sensitive to changes, so will add slowly I think, and think about T3 once things are settled. I’m going to send his secretary an email after I’ve had my bloods done to pass onto him stating I’m going to do it gradually so no need to retest in 8 weeks.

I definitely feel better when my FT3 is around 6, so that’s my aim.