# Water retention and cold body temperature and dry skin.



## prudens2014 (Feb 10, 2014)

> T3 - 99 (71-180)


T4 - 7.5 (4.5-12.0)
TSH - 2.87 (0.4-4.5)

Testosterone - 734
Estrodiol - 23

I'm having water retension issues, especially when I sit home on the weekends when I'm not doing much. My skin is dry, lip cracked, but I drink 1 gallon of water every day... I'm on a healthy diet, I'm on 120mcg of Synthroid. (Should I consider T3)?

I have very low body temperature, especially in the morning when I wake up. Any tips or ideas guys?

Thanks


----------



## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Understanding the Thyroid: Why You Should Check Your Free T3
http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/understanding-thyroid-why-you-should-check-your-free-t3
(Copy and paste into your browser)

Welcome to the board!

T4 and T3 are both very low BUT...........................the FREE T4 and FREE T3 would be better tests to get down to the nitty gritty of things here.

You will find a link above which may be helpful to you. You do appear hypo and it could be from undermedication of the Synthroid OR you are not converting. Only the FREE tests will tell.

Because your Total 3 is so low; my guess would be that you would benefit greatly from some T3 (Cytomel) added to the mix but you do need to get the FT4 and FT3 tests first.


----------



## prudens2014 (Feb 10, 2014)

Hey thanks! So what the doc has me on Cytomel 5mcg today. He gave me 1 refill on it. At this point my main reason for needing to check whether my T4 is converting into T3 is because I feel tired all day and I gain water weight very very easily, and I have low body temperature, and my hands and feet are constantly freezing.

My question is, how long before Cytomel 5mcg starts working? I did feel a bit better this morning, but it only lasted 3 hours... I heard the max dose is 50mcg... So shouldn't I be on 25mcg instead of 5mcg?

Also, what do you mean by my T3 and T4 is very low, does that mean I need more T3 and T4?

Thanks for your time answering.


----------



## Dolly (Apr 24, 2013)

25 mcg is a hefty dose to start. No doctor should ever start a patient out on 25 mcg.....every patient has to work their way up from a small dose to see if they tolerate it. He is correct to start you out small. You should stay on the small dose for awhile, see how your body reacts, and then your doctor will advise you when to increase.

When I began taking Cytomel, I noticed the effect on the first day. Cytomel is not like Synthroid. It is fast-acting and wears off fast too. I take 5 mcg in the morning and 5 mcg at lunchtime or shortly thereafter. I actually am probably going to eventually need more, but I am switching doctors, so I have to wait until July to find out what he wants to do with my dosages.


----------



## Airmid (Apr 24, 2013)

T3 is a bit different then T4 and you definitely want to start slow on it. 5 mcg seems to be a normal starting dose. It has a short half life, much much shorter then T4 (a few hours compared to 7 days). So it's not necessarily surprising that you'd only feel better for shorter bursts. You probably do need a higher dose and it might be wise to call your new doctor's office and ask if they can review your records and allow a bump in the T3.

Most patients seem to feel the best when their T3/T4 is in the 75% range of normal. You'd think they'd move normal a bit due to this but eh, got to have a low end somewhere. You still have room to move them up and getting your T3 up is going to make you feel a whole lot better as that is the active form of thyroid hormone unlike T4 that is inactive and is converted to T3. You need the T4 to convert to the useful T3 and if you aren't doing that well or just not producing enough T4 your T3 levels are going to be low.


----------

