Overmedicating my thyroid? Going against GP advice?

[cjt110]

I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid in Jan 15 and put on 100mg of thyroxine. Tested 8w later and all was fine and I started to feel much better after a period of feeling exhausted.

In May I started to feel exhausted again, like I could easily sleep 24 hours a day and STILL be tired. I was tested and my thyroxine was reduced to 75mg daily and I began to feel MUCH better.

Again, in the last 2 weeks, I've started feeling exhausted again. Getting 8/9 hours anight and then on the days I am at home (I work full time Mon-Fri) just wanting to and actually napping/sleeping. I asked for another blood card and the results from the GP were given as "Borderline. Overmedicating. Retest in 8w"

I have asked the receptionist who gave me my results to ask my GP could I drop to 50 to see if it improves as I cannot stand feeling so tired again for so long.

Has anyone does this - asked the GP to do something they haven't advised - with regards to thyroids and how did you feel once you had dropped had it been borderline?

You need to get your results, the actual figures and the reference ranges, otherwise you will never have a true picture is what is happening. That’s the first thing. Quite often doctors work off the TSH only and will ask you to reduce your dose because TSH is low, even though FT4 and FT3 are also low and causing you symptoms.

In this situation they should actually raise your medication as good levels of FT4 and FT3 are required for you to feel well, regardless of your TSH.

Have you also had your ferritin, iron, B12 and folate and vitamin D checked, and are they all optimal, because if they are not, thyroxine won’t work anyway.

For what it’s worth, by the time I finally got a prescription for thyroxine I had waited nine years and had done a lot of reading around the subject. I found that my GP worked solely off my TSH, which was always suppressed. That meant that although I needed 150mcg of thyroxine to be well, my doctor was only prepared to give me 75mcg, even though my FT4 and FT3 were well within range. I gave up the unequal struggle and now self-treat.

Lots of advice and support available on the ThyroidUK forum at www.healthunlocked.com

Thankyou for your great reply Pleasemrstweedie I know when I was originally diagnosed, both my TSH and FT4 were well out of range...

TSH was 0.04 and my FT4 was 9. I think the scale is TSH 0.2 - 3.2 (So TSH well below the normal range) and FT4 I cant remember. When I was retested a short while later it rocketed to TSH 9 and FT25!

I will definitely ask the receptionist when she calls later. I hope she can tell me. I do have my previous test values written down at home.

Those results look a bit odd. It might be worth setting them out in some sort of order to see if there is a pattern.

My GP has said I will be ok to drop my thyroxine to 50, so long as I retest in 8 weeks (which I obviously wuill do) I have also asked for my results from Jan to now to be printed for me to have a look at.

My Mum has Graves disease and despite being told c.15 years ago that once they had you on "your" dose of thyroxine, that'd be it for life, she is still having her bloods checked and meds upped and downed.

If your Mum is now hypo as a result of graves, they shouldn’t medicate her by reference to her TSH either!

She has graves, was hyper, then had radioactive iodine which resulted in her having no thyroid at all and is now hyper.

Strange how she began her symptoms (which were ignore for 13 years) after she had me and I started with my symptoms after my DS was born.