Emboldened by the very helpful response to my question on TSH a couple of days ago, I am now asking a second question.
In my previous post I explained how my recent blood test results re. TSH levels were high: 4.5 and 6.02 - on two different tests. I am now in the process of asking my GP to raise my thyroxine tablets from 75 mg to 100 mg, thanks to the advice on this board.
However, my T3 blood results were also questionable as they were very much on the low side - see attached. They are 3.2 when the average range should be 3.1 to 6.8.
When I speak to my GP, should I mention this? Is there in fact anything medically that can be done about low T3?
Perhaps I should add that I had thyroid cancer 30 years ago, so I have no thyroid gland whatsoever, if that makes a difference to the answer.
Thank you so much 🕊️.
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ThymeTime
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Thanks. I had those vitamin tests done. All were fine except folate - it was too low.
I appreciate your advice and am currently pursuing my GP for thyroxine increase .
I am ALSO considering seeing a private endocrinologist for a consultation at some point in the future - maybe 🤔. Perhaps I could ‘borrow’ some money off a relative. I am wondering if other people have found seeing a private endocrinologist helpful? Though the advice I’ve been given on this forum has been totally invaluable, I am also feeling a little overwhelmed with tryna figure this out on my own and tryna persuade my GP currently.
Hi yes I did , I found an Endocrinologist in my area that was T3 friendly and saw him privately , I took my private blood tests with me , he then put me on his NHS list , I pay for a private prescription of T3 but so worth it, my T4 was at the top of the range and my T3 at the bottom, good luck ☺️
Thank you so much. (I still find it incredible that strangers are so helpful). I will consider this. Once I (hopefully) get my TSH raised by GP I will get some repeat blood tests done 12 weeks later. Depending on the outcome of the tests, I might try and find an endocrinologist like yours. 🙏
Read The Thyroid Patients Manual by Paul Robinson - a lot cheaper than a private endo. Afterwards you can source your own T3 online if that’s what’s required - 400 x 25mcg pill are around £65 delivered.
So following on from my last reply - in a nutshell -
A fully functioning working thyroid would be supporting you on a daily basis with trace elements of T1. T2 and calcitonin + a measure of T3 at around 10 mcg + a measure of T4 at around 100 mcg -
with T3 being the active thyroid hormone and around 4 times more powerful than T4 :
T4 is a storage hormone and needs to be converted in your body into T3 - which runs the body much like fuel runs a car and the thyroid acts like a gear box - synchronising your physicality and stamina, alongside your mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being, your inner central heating system and your metabolism.
Essential co-factors to enable good conversion and utilisation of T4 to convert into T3 in the liver are optimal levels of ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D - so these co-factors also need to be monitored and supplement as necessary.
We generally feel best once the T4 is up at around 80% through its ranges as this should then convert to a decent level of T3 at around 75% through its range at around 1/4 ratio - T3/T4 :
Some people can get by on T4 only.
Others find that at some point in time T4 seems not to work as well as it once did and that by adding in a little T3 - Liothyronine - likely at a similar dose to that their thyroid once supported them with they are able to restore their T3/T4 balance and their health and well being is improved.
Some can't tolerate T4 - and take T3 only - and read we need around 50 mcg T3 daily just to function.
Whilst others find their health restored better taking Natural Desiccated Thyroid which contains all the same known hormones as that of the thyroid gland and derived from pig thyroids, dried and ground down into a powder which is medically graded and then made up into tablets, referred to as grains o capsules as required with each grain / capsule having a declared content of both T3 and T4 thyroid hormones.
Up until around 2000 all these treatment options were available from your primary care doctor if T4 alone did not restore your health and well being - now your doctor has but T4 and anti depressants - and you will need a referral to an endocrinologist to be assessed for any other treatment option and I'm afraid it has become something of a post code lottery with there being areas of ICB financial restraint with endocrinologists working to hospital guidelines and constraints rather than to patient medical need.
Obviously if you can afford to go Privately you will find a very different landscape :
Thyroid UK the charity which supports this open patient to patient forum hold a list of recommended thyroid specialist, understanding of patient needs - both NHS & Private - maybe email for this list as a back up option - and where you will also find - much more on all things thyroid - thyroiduk.org :
But first off - we need your doctor to re-instate your T4 medication and build you back up the range when we can then reassess how well T4 monotherapy works for you.
Since your T3 is so low your metabolism is likely nonexistent - so your core strength vitamins and minerals - those of ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D may have nose dived as your body will have been struggling to extract key nutrients from your food - no matter how well - you eat.
Looking back I seemed to be allowed to run with a low suppressed TSH until I turned 65 - and then there was this heavy handed approach to cut my T4 dose down and get me ' in the ranges ' all of which made me very ill - but with then a TSH in the range I was ' declared to be much better ' ?????
I was refused by my health authority both T3 and NDT in 2018 and could not afford to go Privately and have been self medicating ever since and am much improved.
If you get lost reading around on this patient to patient forum just press your Profile Icon that sits on the task bar where the Alert sits and this takes you back to all you have ever written and all your replies on this forum.
You can read anyone's thyroid journey on the forum by just pressing the icon that sits along anything they write - if you get lost - just go back to your beginning by pressing your Profile Icon.
If you are on levothyroxine replacement, your TSH should be around 1 or even lower. Both your T4 and T3 are very low, so you should definitely have an increase in medication. You may need further increases as well looking at your figures, but it needs to be done stepwise.
In the meantime, do work on your nutrients and make sure that they are optimal, so they can support your body making the most of your thyroid medication, and they also assist in helping you to convert your T4 into the active T3.
Yes, your T3 is far too low and this is why you are symptomatic. T3 is the driver of our metabolism and responsible for many processes in our body, without sufficient T3 we can run into all sorts of problems such as low immunity (prone to infections), anxiety (body cannot produce sufficient serotonin), higher cholesterol and glucose levels (as liver cannot effectively clear them from your system), higher blood pressure and slow heart rate. This is why it is important to quickly but safely improve your thyroid hormone levels, as your body is dependent on optimal levels of thyroid hormones, so it can work efficiently.
If you had thyroid cancer a long while back, were you not given thyroid medication afterwards? Usually the rule was to keep the TSH low or even suppressed to prevent any cancer recurrence? Was there a reason why you are on a lower dose now?
Yes, I am given T3 supplementation, because despite high doses of levothyroxine (up to 125 at one point) I was still unwell clinically, despite fluctuation TSH. When I finally got a doctor to give me T3 (liothyronine), starting at 25mcg, everything was set right. It took several years of tweaking the dosage, lowering the levothyroxine and raising the T3, to get me felling well. But now I feel great, on T3 only, 50 mcg per day. My FT3 stays around 75% at that, and I have no bad symptoms or other problems.
The real problem is getting doctors to medicate us properly. Wishing you luck in this quest for health!
I'm now in the US, but when I was in the UK, I tried to go through NHS, of course, and had to wait months and months to see a specialist, meanwhile getting sicker, and the specialist went by TSH only, ugh; so then just easily got a private appt., took the train down to London and saw a specialist on Harley Street who listened to reason (and I also brought to the consult a research study from Denmark showing results--and to his credit he read it, right on the spot, called it high quality, and prescribed the T3 as a trial), and I've never looked back. Got well very quickly on that, though we had to tweak the doses, gradually raising T3 and lowering the levothyroxine and so on over a period of a year or more). I have looked for him to refer others to him, but now can't find him, and don't have the paperwork with his name on it any more. All the doctors I see there on clinic websites aren't him, as far as I can tell from their photos and names. That was in, oh, not sure, 2009-2010. Moved out of the UK for a few years, then back and forth for work for several years, then back to the UK (Scotland then) in 2017-2018, and had some of the same trouble obtaining an RX fr T3, despite having been on it successfully.
Over here it's all private, so I was able to get treated fast and was able to find a dr to prescribe T3 (but it all costs quite a bit---understatement---very expensive). I miss the NHS! And so many other things about life in the UK. Especially now with The Current Madness. Anyway, good luck, and I hope you find a good doctor near you who will listen to reason.
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Test result help please?: Low TSH and Low T3
Please help- thyroid results- normal TSH low free T3 and free T4
Low Free T3 
Free T3 blood result just arrived. Your comments please
