Anyone understand thyroid results?

[fishhavefeelingstoo]

I've been prescribed thyroxine today following a blood test and I'm just trying to understand the test results.

My gp said 3 months ago my thyroid test result came back as 4.4, today it's 4.6. She's not concerned about that but about two other test results, one to do with the brain but can't remember exactly what it should be but had gone up from 4? to 10 in 3 months. The other was antibodies that should be 6? but were over 1000! She said the antibodies were attacking my thyroid.

As I've had symptoms of depression, tiredness, poor sleep, weight gain, aches, hair loss etc that I put down to menopause, I'm relieved that there may be a reason for this and all may not be lost! However, struggling to understand what kind of hypothyrpidism this is and why.

I'm on an initial very low dose of thyroxine (25 mcg) and have to go back in three months.

Anyone able to explain these results to me?

TIA

With high antibodies it sounds like Hashimoto's disease, autoimmune hypothyroidism.

That's what I thought after reading a bit online. Should I be expecting an additional treatment or is thyroxine sufficient?

Try stopthethyroidmadness website for detailed explanations, thyroxine replaces thyroid hormone you are not making or not making enough of but it's not quite that simple! There are other associated autoimmune conditions e.g. coeliac which it might be a good idea to test for as many people find a gluten free diet helps their symptoms but you don't want to go gluten free without being tested!

Thanks.

I've actually been gluten free (apart from saying biscuits last night!) for a month or so because I have stomach problems I think may be exacerbated by gluten. However, I dont think the symptoms are bad enough to be coeliac. I'm happy with a gluten free diet anyway .. most of the time.

I too have hashimotos, basically because we have the antibodies we will probably always need thyroxine so my DR says. Unfortunately a lot of trial and error to find the right thyroxine dose, took me about 2 years to get to a point where i felt it was working as it should. Although i still get pretty tired.

The paleo diet is meant to be good for us so ive read.

Can I ask what dose you're on?

My teen daughter suffers a lot of the same symptoms, now I'm wondering if she also has an underactive thyroid? I'm going to ask the gp, hope they'll test her.

To be fair, it doesn't hugely matter what sort of disease it is, treatment is the main thing
Hashimotos can be challenging if it goes up and down; graves can do the same. There are different tyres of antibodies and it's not always clear which does what iykwim, the main thing is to have regular tests, take medication regularly and keep in touch with Gp regarding symptoms.

Always have a blood test in the morning (around the same time) and take the thyroxine afterwards as it can sometimes skew the picture.

Tsh is ideally around 1 or below; some people are best even lower - this is why you must take note of symptoms.

Symptoms can take a while to fade; thyroxine has a half life of 7-10 days so ideally wait 3 months between tests; sometimes a Gp might test if it's been 6 weeks. You're likely to need to adjust or increase the dose over the next year or so. Remember you can take a 25 one day and 50 the next to fine tune if needed; there's also a 12.5 tablet but not everywhere has it.

Make sure ferritin is good - above 70, vitamin d and b12 as all mimic symptoms if low; iron is also important for thyroid hormones. Iodine is important but less so if you're on thyroxine.

You must get checked before any pregnancy to check you're ok and get monitored throughout pregnancy, keeping below tsh 2.

British thyroid foundation have lots of really good advice and leaflets.

Gluten isn't necessarily an issue; there's a higher incidence of thyroid issues with those who have coeliacs; and the coeliac disease may not be known about which is where that thing comes from.

Constipation is common in under active thyroid.

If it helps gut issues to cut it out, fine as it's a FODMAP food, but I wouldn't worry too much.