Would love to here your opinion about my TSH blood test results

[Shirly_Goldeberg]

                         Hello all,
I had a blood test recently to check on my TSH, FREE T3 and FREE T4 values.
I suffer for period of times a major fatigue, weakness, hair loss, etc...although I know this could be due to a different conditions like Anemia I decided to check on my thyroid first.
My results came back from the lab yesterday, and they (the lab) told me it shows a slight hypothyroidism condition.
Now, my doctor is in vacation and till he comes back i'd love to hear from someone who understand, if it IS just a "slight" hypothyroidism - because my T4 levels is on the minimum range.  


Free T4 (Blood Spot)*

0.7
ng/dL
0.7-2.5

Free T3 (Blood Spot)

3.1
pg/mL
2.5-6.5

TSH (Blood Spot)

1.3
µU/mL
0.5-3.0

Thank you!

[gimel]

With those symptoms and those lab test results I'd say it is more than just  "slight" hypothyroidism.  We don't often see results from blood spot tests; however, assuming that they correlate with serum thyroid hormone tests, your Free T4 is at rock bottom of the range, and your Free T3 is only at 15% of its range, which are much too low for most people.  In addition you should be aware of this information about reference ranges, taken from the link following, which can provide useful information for discussion with your doctor.

"Unfortunately the ranges for FT4 (and also FT3) are not well standardised among different test machine manufacturers, generally validated, or based on large databases of healthy adults with no thyroid pathology.  Instead those ranges are locally established in the small series of test data available at any given laboratory, excluding only data from patients assumed to have thyroid issues based on the flawed TSH range. Clinically hypothyroid patients with TSH within the reference range, people with hidden pathologies such as undiagnosed central hypothyroidism or autoimmune disease and patients taking thyroid medication can all be included in the database. So using the flawed concept of a TSH range to identify hypothyroidism even contaminates ranges established for FT4 and FT3. In addition, as previously discussed, trying to identify abnormality by comparing individual test results to group reference ranges can be very misleading."

http://www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/TUK_PDFs/diagnosis_and_treatment_of_hypothyroidism_issue_1.pdf

From your symptoms and your test results I expect that you have central hypothyroidism.  Central hypothyroidism is a dysfunction of the hypothalamus/pituitary system that results in relatively low TSH, and resultant low Free T4 and Free T3.  So don't let the doctor try to tell you that no treatment is required because your test results are within range.  A good thyroid doctor  will treat a hypothyroid patient clinically by testing and adjusting Free T4 and Free T3 as needed to relieve symptoms, without being constrained by resultant TSH levels.  Symptom relief should be all important, not just test results, and especially not TSH results.  Many members say that symptom relief required Free t4 at the middle of its range, at minimum, and Free T3 in the upper part of its range, as needed to relieve symptoms.  

In addition, hypo patients are frequently too low in the range for Vitamin D, B12 and ferritin.  I suggest that you should also test for those and supplement as needed to optimize.  D should be about 50 min., B12 in the upper end of its range, and ferritin should be 70-100.  All 3 are important.  

[Shirly_Goldeberg]

Thank you so much for your informative reply.
I Do suffer from a severe vitamin D deficiency which i'm trying to balance these days, hope it will ease my hypothyroidism symptoms.

Thank you again, i'll go over the links and schedule an appointment  with my doctor.