Higher TSH level and difficultly conceiving?

[Holmcross]

Hi!

I had a blood test a few years ago which showed serum TSH level as 5.1. They said not clinically relevant unless symptomatic and to repeat in 12 months. Unfortunately I forgot. I had a recent blood test which showed 4.16 which is only just under the upper limit of normal, 4.2.

I know that from googling studies, for best chances of conceiving it should be under 2.5. Has anyone had experience of this? I have doctors appointment for early April but I’m not really sure if they’ll do anything as it’s not classed as hypothyroidism even though it’s likely to affect chances of conceiving?

Thank you!

Just caught up on your thread @Holmcross, great news about your levo prescription, great news about your B12 and now you'll be bringing your D up a notch so will definitely feel better! It's great that they were willing to prescribe Levo at this point. Well done you for persevering. Don't worry about the antibodies for now, safe to say that you probably have Hashi's and so the antibody test will only tell you how severe, and given the GP and endo are playing ball you can keep that card in your back pocket for now.

If you're fairly early in your hypothyroidism journey, hopefully the levo will bring your TSH down quickly. As others have said, your dose will probably be increased gradually with each set of blood tests till you find the sweet spot.

Lifestyle changes and taking your levo carefully will help - tell me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs! but don't take your levo anywhere near consuming caffeine, anything with calcium, magnesium, iron / ferritin. If you can manage to take it on a completely empty stomach and then wait an hour before eating and drinking, great.

I take mine fairly close to a high dose vitamin C supplement, as have read it can help absorption.

A probiotic will also be a good shout given that you've already experienced some gastric issues.

If you forget to take your levo one day, just take a double dose the next day - levo has quite a long half life so it won't hurt to take double or even triple doses. Best to take it consistently and at same sort of time every day if you can though.

I'm rooting for you OP, and sending lots of good and healthy wishes for you over the next few weeks. Keep us posted! ❤

Thank you! Yeah I’ll just get the antibodies done in 8 ish weeks when they redo the other tests.

In your experience how long would it take to change from 5.5 to between 1-2? Im not sure how likely it is that 50mcg is enough, or TSH might not decrease very much, and they either wait longer to see if it’s slow affect or increase the dose

I’ll definitely take it first thing then wait an hour. I’ll have a look at vit C supplements . Do you recommend a probiotic?

Hi Holmcross.

Sorry jumping on an old thread but was looking for info on high TSH levels and TTC and came across this. How did you get on after you started medication?

I've been TTC 2+ years. Bloods done after a year had TSH at 5.6 which was top level of 'normal' by my NHS region and it wasn't flagged until I had a review with a private consultant. I've since been on levothyroxine, from 50mg, to 75mg then down to 50mg again when it seemed to be working a bit too well (down to TSH of 0.01). But then my last test it was up to 7 - and I'm back on 75mg/day.

I have another blood test this week to see how that has been working. Also waiting for IVF appt to start soon. Reading through all this, it seems so important to get TSH levels right before starting (and hoping maybe then it wouldn't be needed!?).

I just wish that my GP and NHS fertility consultant took this seriously. It's infuriating - especially reading the response from the person with 3 failed IVF rounds before it was picked up. The NHS consultant looked at my blood test results with TSH at 5.6 and didn't flag anything wrong with that. 😡

Also interesting to read a few comments comparing hypothyroidism with ADHD. I have a few traits and wonder if it is from high TSH.