Does anyone have central / secondary hypothyroidism?

[TammySwansonTwo]

For 10 years I've had hypothyroid symptoms but blood tests have been within normal range. At the time I was on a hormonal treatment tha basically tells your pituitary gland to switch off your ovaries. Due to my symptoms I was diagnosed with ME but that doesn't cover many of my symptoms. Now they're saying I have fibromyalgia.

Tired of the fighting I paid for private blood tests. My TSH is perfectly normal but T4 at the bottom f the normal range. I did some research and found out that these results can be indicative of central hypothyroidism which is caused by an issue with the pituitary gland. To me this all seems like too much of a coincidence. Went to my GP and he clearly thinks I'm mad since this is rare and not something he has any knowledge of.

Going to get another private test done in a few months and see if there's any change. Does anyone have any experience of this? How did you get your diagnosis? I doubt they'll refer me to an endocrinologist so looks like I may have to pay to see one as I'm so desperate. I just want some answers, been suffering for 10 years now and it's becoming unbearable - had to stop working 6 years ago and struggling to look after my twins.

What was your tsh? Perhaps get a blue horizons 11 finger prick test. You might have autoimmune hashimotos and this tests your antibodies and ft3 as well as important vitamins.

If i were you I'd get that test done straight away as if you have low ft3 and antibodies for hashimotos, you could insist on seeing an endocrinologist. Private appointment would be around £200.

Thank you - my antibodies levels were in normal range, although having read up on that I'm not fully sure whether any antibodies is normal. I don't know!

Results were
TSH 2.02 (0.27 - 4.3)
FT4 12.5 (12 - 23)
FT3 4.45 (3.1 - 6.8)
T4 77.6 (64.5 - 142)
TPEX antibodies 12.7 (0-34)
TGAB 13.2 (0 - 115)

I used Thriva but may look elsewhere. Stupidly did the test mid day and not fasting as wasn't aware of this

I think it's worth doing another test - early am and fasting. Your ft4 is very low. There's medichecks and blue horizons that i know of. I used blue horizons as it included vit D, folate, ferritin and B12. I found i had low Vit D and B12 plus low in range ft3 and ft4.

It's is very low - last time I was tested a few months ago (by GP) it was around 15 (but range for that lab started at 10) and TSH was around 1.5 which means FT4 has dropped a fair bit but TSH hasn't risen to tell my body to make more. From the research I did, usually you don't see FT4 that low with a normal TSH as usually it has risen way before it ever drops to that stage. I said all this to my GP and he said that my TSH wouldn't have risen because my FT4 is still in the normal range. Ugh. When I got the results back the doctor who checked it signed it off too, since everything is in normal range. At this point I think I need to see someone who knows what they're doing. My plan right now is to wait until next month, repeat as a fasting test and then take my new results in and beg. Will see what happens.