I am a 50 year old very fit woman, was diagnosed with Grave on March 8. My T4 was 35.8 and my TSH was 0.01. I am working away for 13 weeks so my GP was not able to treat as he would normally - as a compromise he put me on 10mg of Carbimazole a day. Yesterday I almost fainted several times - unusual for me. I rang my GP who advised a blood test which I have had - my results are T4 25.8 and TSH 0.003. What does this mean? Am I taking the right amount of Carbimazole or should I reduce it? I seem to have responded very fast.
Can you help with my results?: I am a 50 year old... - Thyroid UK
Can you help with my results?
Hello - sorry I don't know too much about Graves but do you have a range for the FT4 please? It seems a bit odd that your TSH and T4 have both gone down, usually they move in opposite directions. Xx
Hello Apolloartemis,
I would say that is good that your FT4 has reduced and it would be useful to know the range that the lab that did the tests works to (different labs work to different values of 'normality'). If you have the result in writing there is usually the value and then in brackets details of the what they consider to be the normal range.
In my experience the TSH doesn't follow a straightforward path – mine went down even though my FT4 also went down when I first started adjusting back towards 'normality'.
The thing to watch out for with Carbimazole is whether you get a sore throat (because it can mean your immune system may be compromised as a side-effect). As far as I remember from the 'side-effects' leaflet it doesn't happen very often. I don't remember fainting being a particular issue, but it might be an idea to check the 'side effects' leaflet.
Good luck