Hi there,
I had the standard NHS thyroid test two weeks ago. The results came back last week and my T4- and 11- was lower than its ever been......a year into treatment! Any ideas why its got lower instead of higher? My THS was below 1.0. I am currantly on 2 grains of Erfa a day.
Cheers
When you are taking a medicine which contains T4 and T3, and the ratio of T4 to T3 is low, that is what you would expect.
You are not taking in enough T4 to keep your FT4 level up. But you are taking enough T3 to keep your TSH down. You might even be doing fine.
Rod
How are you feeling? How much T4 did you used to take before switching to Erfa?
Your T4 may be lower because, now that you are getting T3, you aren't needing so much T4. Also the ratio of T3:T4 in NDT is slightly higher than in humans so that might account for some of it. It would be interesting to see what your T3 is but I guess that you are not able to get this tested - it seems almost impossible these days 
If you are still not feeling too well, you may need an increase of the Erfa. Don't worry about your TSH being low. Rod recently posted a link to a paper that demonstrated how the relationship between TSH and thyroid hormones is fine unless you are hypothyroid, in which case it doesn't apply; therefore, ignore the TSH - science says so 
I hope that helps a little bit.
Carolyn x
Rod beat me to it again! My typing fingers must be getting old
No Carolyn and rob! Thanks for the swift advice lol
Not feeling great. Still struggling! Just wanted to clear up the t4 mystery though lol nothing to worry about then?
I think I got up to 100.... Or was it 150 of levo before I changed to erfa. I'm only taking what, 74 of the t4 now.
I did try increasing my erfa by half a grain on dr p's orders but crashed so pulled back to 2 again. Mind you that could have been due to the cough bug I had/have. Also the kelp and tyrosine addition. All stopped and back to previous levels now. I think I'll try adding in again this week though.
It's hard what's going in when you have adrenal fatigue too :0/
Cheers
Simon
If you have adrenal fatigue, you might want to increase by only 1/4 grain to be on the safe side. 1/2 grain might be too much for you now that you are on 2 grains. You might then need another increase of 1/4 grain a few weeks later. Slowly but surely 
yeah i think you're right C. Remind me again what happens when you increase thyroid meds? I mean why one can't handle it sometimes when you have adrenal fatigue.
Also, this time i'm going to take the extra Erfa in the mornings....rather than my 3.30pm dose.
I'm not entirely sure except that perhaps the adrenals can't handle suddenly being stimulated by the increase in T3. I think they can handle so much, but too much stimulation really taxes them, making you so much more tired. I'm not 100% sure on this though.
I think taking the increase in the morning is a good idea. Are you following the circadian T3 method? It might be worth trying if you know you have low cortisol in the morning.
I hope you feel an improvement soon
well C..... i did the CT3M for a few months last year but never really got anywhere with it so i gave up and went and saw Dr P. I'm on glandulars since then.
However, i usually wake up in the early hours of the morning, so i've taken to taking my Erfa then. I think it's given me a bit more of a boost. Its like a life juice i'm lacking and sometimes i feel that for a bit when i take Erga early doors. There's no structure to taking it then but thats what i've been doing this last week. Perhaps its time to give it a try again.
I'll take 1 1/4 grains as of tomorrow morning then :0)
Si
How do you get Erfa Sporty? do you have to pay? x
No I asked my gp for it and he gave me a years supply!
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