Blood results

Hi Sue, have you had folate and ferritin checked? Your T4 is at the lower end of the range, I have limited knowledge, but there is a possibility that you may not be converting T4 (inactive thyroxine) to T3 (the active version of thyroxine) well. Are you taking any supplements? It may be worth taking selenium as this supports the body to convert T4 to T3.

I'm assuming that you are not taking Levothyroxine, or any other thyroid substitute. If you are on Levo, then your TSH actually needs to be under 2.

It could also be worth getting tested for Coeliac disease, this often goes hand in hand with other autoimmune diseases such as pernicious anaemia and thyroid disease. Lastly, have you tried keeping a food and symptoms diary? This helped me get my UAT diagnosis and gluten intolerance confirmed. I kept note of everything i ate,(dont change your diet at this stage) symptoms each day, pulse rate first thing in a morning (UAT often = low pulse rate) and temperature (again this is often lowere if you are UAT).

I found that going to the doctor with 'hard evidence' rather than 'im feeling exhausted' got them to take me more seriously.

Hope this helps, and hope you feel better soon.

Hi sue, it's worth testing for anaemia. Are you aware there are several types of anaemia caused by a deficiency in any of the following: iron, B12, or folate? So it's worth getting these checked. The double whammy is: if your thyroid levels are low you won't process the available iron properly, and if your iron levels are low you won't process thyroid medications properly. Net result is that you will feel lousy and the thyroid blood test results will be misleading. When I had low ferritin I had underactive symptoms and blood test results that indicated overactive. I explained this to myself that I wasn't processing the thyroxine so was getting underactive symptoms and it was staying in my blood giving overactive readings when measured. There are a lot of vitamins and minerals that thyroid patients are often low in, namely iron, ferritin, vitamin D, vitamin B12, potassium, magnessium, selenium, zinc, calcium, any of which make one feel lousy if they are low. So do get tested for these. Remember to ask your GP for a printout of the results. If you post them here (with the range that's next to each test) we can help you interpret them. As for your blood test results being 'normal', I'm not so sure they are. Yes they are all in the normal range, but on closer inspection one can see your TSH is towards the top of its range and your T4 and T3 are towards the bottom of their respectives ranges. If it was me, i would request a blood test for the vitamins and minerals I've listed above. If any of them are low then they need correcting first. If they are normal, i would speak to my doctor saying that i have these symptoms and see what he thinks about the theory about bordering on being underactive despite being in range. (Note i'm not qualified medically, this is just what I've worked out for myself!) All the best.