TSH suddenly shot up

[ThyroidQ]

From 3.something to 10.8 in a couple of months.

Have been trying to get it below 2 so we can start IVF (fertility issues not related to thyroid function in our case... Or haven't been in the past anyway).

Trying to get a Dr appointment tomorrow to discuss but feeling a bit worried. Anyone had this or know why it could be happening?

TSH is the hormone emitted by your pituitary gland to stimulate your hormone.

By the fact it has gone up suggests your pituitary is pumping more TSH out and therefore you need more thyroxine (Synthetic thyroid hormone).

If your TSH is high, increase the levothyroxine and it should come down.

From my own, and my Mum's experience, it's bullshit that once you are on a dose of levo and your levels are steady they wont change.

Thanks- I've been on levo for 10+ years, just never had TSH this high and never such a sharp increase in such a short time 🤔

I think it can just fluctuate. Mine went from a normal range to over 200 in one month. It came back down with more medication.

Thanks @Kescilly, 200 sounds ludicrously high!! It's just such a bloody faff, with needing IVF to get pregnant anyway, we could do without this on top!

Have you had our TSH, FT4, FT3 and parathyroid tested as well as antibodies?

FT4 is in normal range-around 20. Not had the others checked yet.

It is! No one believed the results and they kept redoing the blood tests. I know it can be stressful, I was really stressed out about TTC given my history and the fact that I'm tested less on the NHS than I was in my home country.

It recently turned out that I was actually being over medicated, and while they were adjusting the dosage, I've managed to get pregnant. It's the lowest dosage I've ever been on, so nothing about my thyroid seems stable to me. But I wanted to let you know that while it's incredibly frustrating, it hopefully won't hold you back.

Do you ave an IVF clinic and are you going through them?

Yes we have an IVF clinic but standard protocol seems to be to get TSH sorted via GP first which is a bit annoying...we are lucky enough to have a son already (after four rounds of IVF!) so I know it can work, but when you want to be pregnant, you want to be pregnant NOW

Insist they are all checked too.

Do you have Hashimoto's disease? If you google gluten and Hashimoto's you'll see lots of info about this - my thyroxine dose had to be lowered when I became gluten free. Might be worth you looking into.

Not as far as I know @Kintan, it's always just been referred to as 'underactive thyroid', never any investigation into root cause and generally been well controlled on levo

@ThyroidQ mine was always just referred to as an under active thyroid too until one doctor - in answer to my question if I’d ever be able to stop taking thyroxine said ‘of course not you have an autoimmune disease’ Which was news to me at the time! I’m well controlled on thyroxine too now - especially since I adjusted my diet and gave up gluten. My dose has stayed the same since around 2014 and didn’t even get adjusted throughout my pregnancy. Hope you can get to the bottom of things and start your IVF soon x

Thankyou @Kintan, that's really helpful. I've been told I'll never be off thyroxine either, so maybe that is the case. I do find GPs are generally evasive/not that well informed to be honest. I'm hoping this is just a blip...I was also well controlled during pregnancy so fingers crossed.