Thanks, I had the ECG done today and the nurse who did it said there was nothing of immediate concern. She could only say so much as she wasn't a cardiologist so that's good news and reassuring considering the amount of heart disease/stroke in the family. :)
I'm quite happy to wait until next month to get the LH and FSH done. It's not urgent but the endo would like to see what my levels are like. It's quite possible that at the time I had my last one - and the one the year before (also normal) - were both done when I wasn't on my period! That would be unlucky...
Anything that could be connected with a heart issue should always be checked out, but your dizzy spells are most likely nothing to worry about. Many of us have them (I do to) when we rise too quickly. While they might be disconcerting, they aren't dangerous unless we actually rise quickly enough to pass out and hurt ourselves.
It's not unusual to have the odd period now and then. You can wait until next month to get the FSH and LH done. They are important, but not life threatening or anything, so waiting a month won't hurt, but if it makes you nervous waiting and it's customary to go to the hospital for such things, you could do that, as well.
Thanks, my doctor is referring me for an ultrasound but yes, she believes it's a drop in blood pressure upon rising. But because of the family history including diabetes, angina, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and aortic aneurysm she thinks a heart problem needs to be ruled out.
Yes, the endo did say for me to get the FSH and LH done within 7 days of a period but I wasn't sure if I had a period this month because it was spotting and the bleeding was painless. I usually get pain with bleeding. Also my surgery is busy in terms of blood test dates so they couldn't fit me in for this time. My thyroid medication review is being done in 3 weeks' time and I know my period won't be then, so I'm wondering if I should drop in to the hospital and get the FSH and LH done. The endo said for me to get the FSH and LH done either this month or next month.
It does look like you needed your levo reduced after the August event but probably not as much as it was.
Your dizzy feelings sound like a sudden drop in blood pressure upon rising. Talk to your gp about that. In the mean time try rising more slowly and see if that helps.
Didn't you say your endo said to get the FSH and LH done within 7 days of a period?
Thanks for replying. Apologies, I forgot to include the August results for thyroid.
TSH – 0.08 (0.2-4.2)
Free T3 – 6.4 (3.9-6.7)
Free T4 – 23.6 (12-22)
I did have increased sweating and weight loss and tremor at the time.
Yes, I get the dizzy spells getting up after sitting down but they’re more severe when I’ve been resting for over half an hour.
I get symptoms when I eat gluten but I don’t know if it’s gluten intolerance. I get constipation that appears out of nowhere from eating gluten within 5-20 minutes.
The LH and FSH tests haven’t been done yet but I’m now on a period. Is this the best time for these to be done? Testosterone was done back in January and was normal: 0.7 (0.2-1.7)
I'll try to hit your points down the line as well as I can...
Your endo, actually, sounds like a pretty reasonable doctor, compared to what we, typically see in U.K. It's possible that the endo dept can only keep patients for a certain amount of time or until they get to a certain point in treatment, then have to be released to a gp... could have something to do with NHS guidelines.
I don't see a suppressed TSH in August; in fact, don't see any labs for August. Suppressed TSH isn't the end of the world. TSH is often suppressed when we're on replacement hormones and means nothing if we don't have hyper symptoms. My TSH has been suppressed (< 0.01) for the past 6.5 yrs.). No, suppressed TSH has "nothing" whatsoever to do with Hashimoto's.
Presumably, the endo is asking the gp to report back to her or refer you back to her if your levels are not stable over the prescribed course of time.
She's probably right about the difficulty swallowing resolving itself once your levels are where you need them to be. If your thyroid is swollen that will probably resolve when your levels are right and your body begins healing.
Not sure about the dizzy spells... depends on when they happen. If you get them upon rising from a sitting/lying position, you may be changing position too quickly. You wouldn't be checking your blood pressure at those times, so you wouldn't know exactly what it's doing. That happens to a lot of us and I agree that it's probably not thyroid related and would be something to take up with your gp, particularly if s/he's doing an EKG soon.
I agree that there's no scientific evidence to prove that going gluten free affects TPOab levels, so there's no reason to go gluten free unless one has celiac or is gluten intolerant. Some people have found that weight loss is easier if they cut back on foods containing gluten, since many of them are the processed high carb foods, such as bread, cereals, etc.
Did you get the FSH and LH tests taken? Because of the excess hair issue, was there any mention of a testosterone test?
I certainly agree that your thyroid hormone levels are hypo... Your FT4 is only at 29% of its range; rule of thumb is 50%. Your FT3 is only at 14% of its range and rule of thumb is upper half to upper third of range. You have a long way to go to get out of that hypo slump.
Additionally, your ferritin is still way too low in the range... ferritin needs to be quite high in the range. There's some controversy over the actual number, but it needs to be at least 50 and some say as high as 80 to 90. Ferritin is an iron storage hormone and iron is necessary for the conversion of FT4, which is a storage hormone and not used directly by the cells, to FT3, which is used directly by individual cells. Too low iron will also cause some symptoms, such as fatigue, etc.
Looking at the percentages of your hormone levels, it's very possible that you have a conversion issue, but your FT4 is so low in the range, it's hard to tell. Once your FT4 gets to the 50% level, your FT3 should start tracking it up and if it doesn't, we'd say you have a conversion issue and would need to add a T3 med.
I'm guessing that what happened in August is that your levels started getting up to where you needed them, but that suppressed your TSH and your doctor panicked and started decreasing your med. That happened to me, as well. It had nothing to do with being hyper -- simply suppressed TSH, which is neither uncommon, nor dangerous unless you have hyper symptoms, which I did not.
The sheer numbers of antibodies is insignificant -- the simple fact that yours are elevated confirms that you have Hashimoto's. The antibodies aren't causing your symptoms; the hypothyroidism resulting from destruction of your thyroid, by the antibodies, is causing your symptoms. You can't stop the antibodies and it's not unusual for them to fluctuate.
I think your endo is on the right track; lets just hope your gp doesn't panic and lower your med, if your TSH drops again when your thyroid hormone levels start coming up to where you need them to be.
As long as you have the option to go back to her, you should do fine.
Sorry, Anti-TPO antibodies increased to 141 in August from 33.5 in March.
Forgot to mention: I did a saliva cortisol test. I will be sending it off next week.