# Newbie and Confused



## kat2800 (Nov 16, 2010)

Hi everyone. I feel very good about finding this message board today and hope someone here can help point me in the right direction. I have suffered from weight problems(100 lbs overweight almost all after the kids were born), extreme fatigue, ADHD symptoms, irritable bowels, and extreme puffiness (like water retention) for years. It started 10 yrs ago after my first child was born and has continued to get worse since my second child was born 4 1/2 years ago. I diet and exercise (when I actually have the energy to) and I can lose about 14lbs but then nothing else - no matter what!

I have asked for tests and have gotten the following:
TSH 1.05 (range .34 - 5.6)
Free T4 0.72 (range .61 - 1.12)
LH 3.94 
FSH 3.16
Antithyroid Microsomal AB <10
Thyroglobulin Antibody <20
Estradiol 114.0
T3 Total 1.43 (range .87 - 1.78)

The primary care dr said all looks fine. I have made an appt with an endo but feel so helpless. Any thoughts on my lab results?

Hugs and Thanks,
Kat


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## GD Women (Mar 5, 2007)

Your TSH and FT4 are within Labs so symptoms should not be thyroid related. 
It would be more helpful if you had an FT-3 done with the other two instead of T3 and posted your Labs reference range. There are issues that can interfere with Totals where they don't interfere with the Frees. However, both levels seem to be low, if your FT-3 is low as well, something else might be going on that might be the cause of your issues.

There are a lot of other health issues that mimic thyroid symptoms and need to be checked out before any type diagnose and treatment. Symptoms need to correlate with thyroid levels for it could be something else. 
"The symptoms of both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism are non-specific . Thus the practice of prescribing thyroid treatment on a clinical basis alone without biochemical confirmation carries potential risks". - New England Journal Of Medicine 
If you have symptoms and don't have a wholesome diet, take nutritional supplements, exercise to tolerance, get physical treatment as needed and abstain from taking metabolism-slowing drugs each day (such as beta-blockers, muscle relaxants, and narcotics) raises the possibility that your symptoms are caused by the issue addressed above. For example, if you don't take nutritional supplements, nutritional deficiencies may the cause of your symptoms. In that case, taking nutritional supplements would relieve the symptoms. You should consider the use of thyroid hormone only when you can honestly say that you do all the above. 
If you do all the above, it's suggested you find an alternative doctor who is cooperative and collaborative. The doctor should be competent at differentiating medical disorders that might be causing your symptoms. For example, low adrenal function is a common cause of some of the symptoms 
A doctor competent at diagnosis can help you determine the cause-whether it's hypothyroidism or some other disorder.

A lot of us have weight issues, in fact 66 % of the world's population is overweight. They say that only 10 lbs of weight gain is due to thyroid, 
TSH above 10. And I do struggle with weight on the unhealthy side. I blame it on my genes. We just can't blame everything on thyroid.

Good luck with the endo.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

kat2800 said:


> Hi everyone. I feel very good about finding this message board today and hope someone here can help point me in the right direction. I have suffered from weight problems(100 lbs overweight almost all after the kids were born), extreme fatigue, ADHD symptoms, irritable bowels, and extreme puffiness (like water retention) for years. It started 10 yrs ago after my first child was born and has continued to get worse since my second child was born 4 1/2 years ago. I diet and exercise (when I actually have the energy to) and I can lose about 14lbs but then nothing else - no matter what!
> 
> I have asked for tests and have gotten the following:
> TSH 1.05 (range .34 - 5.6)
> ...


Hi there Kat and welcome.

It does not look fine to me. Your FT4 is in the basement. It should be mid-range (.86) or higher. Definitely higher as this FT4 is what converts to your FT3 (you did not have that test) and the FREE T3 (FT3) is your active hormone.

And while the antibodies are not high in the range coming in below range, you do have a smattering of them ( and they do wax and wane from day to day, week to week and so on) so therefore it is my humble opinion that something is afoot.

Here is a place to learn why the FREES are more important and a bunch of other cool stuff to learn about labs.......

Understanding thyroid lab tests.....http://www.amarillomed.com/howto

And here are all the tests that I recommend for a really good work-up on the thyroid.

TSI (thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin),TPO (antimicrosomal antibodies) TBII (thyrotropin-binding inhibitory immunoglobulin), Thyroglobulin Ab, ANA (antinuclear antibodies), (thyroid hormone panel) TSH, Free T3, Free T4.

You can look this stuff up here and more.........
http://www.labtestsonline.org/unders...s/thyroid.html

Upon reading your post, I was wondering you have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), diabetes and low ferritin as well.

Some times these things are part and parcel. If one part of the endocrine system fails, other parts follow suit.


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## GD Women (Mar 5, 2007)

Low FT4 and FT3 with low TSH could raise some concern and not necessarily thyroid concern. Such as adrenal fatigue and if you* do* have thyroid and treating it before correcting the adrenals you will never get well because adrenals do interfere with thyroid. So adrenals need to be treated and corrected first before thyroid. There are other health issues that I won't go into right now because we don't know where your FT3 levels is in relationship to the other two levels, so no need to be concerned now. Next test be sure to not only do TSH and FT4 but FT3 as well. All three tell the story, including antibodies.

There is no one set level for everyone. We all are different. Hypers are different than hypo. Graves' is different then Hashi's. We will not all feel best at the same level. We have to go by our own system on how we feel and sometimes its best not to push the envelope. That is why there is a wide Lab range as well as, taking into consideration thyroid levels around the country and not just one specific area. Thyroid levels can be different and/or change in different environments.

Let us know your next Lab results with Labs reference range.


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