On HRT for 6 months. Problems with my thyroid, need help, please!

[bjo2925]

I´m on hormone replacement therapy for about 6 months. in my last blood analysis ​​the thyroid gland results were awful, it seems that it practically does not work.

Is it normal?

What problems can I expect?

I´m very worried. Will I start to accumulate fat around the waist, I read something about it .. Will this be the least of my problems?

Thanks a lot!

Bjo

My English sucks since i´m not english native. Sorry for that!

[lifter65]

what were your lab numbers?

[forrest_and_trees]

+1 Need labs.

P.S. No need to apologize, your English is better than many people who speak it natively.

[bjo2925]

Here are my results:


T3 - 35 ng/dl (70-204), these are the reference values

T3 free - 1,7 ng/l (2,0-5,0)

T4 - 2,8 ng/dl (4,5-10,9)

T4 free - 0,8 ng/gl (0,8-2,7)

TSH - 2,2 mUi/l (0,400-4,5)


Thanks a lot!!!!

[lifter65]

it looks like you would benefit from maybe synthroid, but your tsh looks decent so not really sure, have you seen a doc

[steroid.com 1]

Free T4 is a real indicator of Thyroid health. It's best at the top of the range and you're at the bottom. TSH is mid range and it should be at the bottom. I don't see anything here that warrants immediate concern.

Do you add iodine to your diet as in salt? Is there iodine in your multi vitamin?

[bjo2925]

lifter, the doc gave no big importance to it. TSH is ok, but has devine said, free t4 is bottom low, and that is a big concern for me. probably I´ll good for another doc.

My multi vitamin has iodine in it!!

devine, with such a low t4, why do you say that I don´t have to worry too much?

Thank you both

[GotNoBlueMilk]

My multi vitamin has iodine in it!!

How much iodine? And I bet it is iodide not iodine.

You want to find some iodine (this is usually liquid and your first choice) or iodide (2nd choice) that is 1000+ percent the daily recommended dosage. Take that everyday for a week and see if there is improvement. The daily recommended allowance is way low. On top of that, food manufacturers put bromide (a poison) in bread the help with the processing. Your body uses your iodine to remove the bromide from your body. This is a big reason why 80% of americans are iodine deficient.

[zaggahamma]

How much iodine? And I bet it is iodide not iodine.

You want to find some iodine (this is usually liquid and your first choice) or iodide (2nd choice) that is 1000+ percent the daily recommended dosage. Take that everyday for a week and see if there is improvement. The daily recommended allowance is way low. On top of that, food manufacturers put bromide (a poison) in bread the help with the processing. Your body uses your iodine to remove the bromide from your body. This is a big reason why 80% of americans are iodine deficient.

curious gnmbm...how many pills/supps do you take daily...with all the ppl saying to take this, this, and this, i would be assuming if anyone took all of them it would number a dozen or greater

[SlimmerMe]

To help relieve further concern, get a TPO test which will indicate whether you are headed towards autoimmune/Hashimtos and if so, usually iodine is NOT recommended.
But for now? Your numbers are not of immediate concern as gdevine mentioned.

[GotNoBlueMilk]

curious gnmbm...how many pills/supps do you take daily...with all the ppl saying to take this, this, and this, i would be assuming if anyone took all of them it would number a dozen or greater

I take NOW Adam as my multi. I take Omega-3 (no -6 or -9 in there JUST -3), I take a 500 mg Calcium (nothing huge), I take 50 mg Zn, I take 5,000 IU D (winter I take 10,000 IU).

I take some Iodine a couple times a week. A $20 vial has lasted me months.

So I swallow about quite a few vitamins. They all run me about $40 a month, give or take. My T, hCG, and AI (research chemicals) altogether run me about twice that a month. My T, hCG, and AI do more for me than my vitamins and if I had to drop one of the other, I would keep the HRT.

[steroid.com 1]

To help relieve further concern, get a TPO test which will indicate whether you are headed towards autoimmune/Hashimtos and if so, usually iodine is NOT recommended.
But for now? Your numbers are not of immediate concern as gdevine mentioned.

Excellent advise Slimmer and why one needs to be careful about Iodine supplementation.

Also, when one supplements with Iodine they should take the recommended dosage. The Hypothalamus is very sensitive to Iodine and can easily be stressed out if too much is taken. Consider taking 5 days and then two days off a month with one week entirely off. This give the Hypothalamus a break, keeps levels in the lower more beneficial range.

Also, one needs to take D3 and Selenium as well to get the best uptake.

[forrest_and_trees]

Do you have any previous blood work to compare those numbers to? That would help put this in perspective. Numbers aside, you haven't mentioned any symptoms. Are you experiencing any or is the blood work the only thing that is raising concern?

[bjo2925]

My multivitamin has 75ug iodine. Researched and realized that the dosage for an adult should be between 150 to 200ug. It's a start!

Read about Hashimoto's disease, and I use this to answer the question of symptoms, I have, in fact, some of the symptoms of the disease: muscle weakness, cramps, fatigue, constipation and some memory loss, but not always, say that 80% of the time I'm fine. It was fatigue that raised concern, but, has I said, most of the times I´m ok.

I do not know the results of previous analysis, I made them all long ago and do not know where are the results...

So, first I´ll run the TPO test, to clear out if I have or not Hashimoto´s (has a simple treatment of one tablet per day, according to Mayo Clinic), If I´m clear on this, I´ll raise my iodine intake. Wait a month and then run some blood works.

however, I will follow Devine and Slimmer´s advice and I will not concern too much because the results are not as bad as I thought they were.

[GotNoBlueMilk]

muscle weakness, cramps, fatigue, constipation and some memory loss are signs of low E2, high E2, low T, and a thousand other diseases. You have to be careful with generic symptoms. They don't tell you much. But better safe than sorry.

[bjo2925]

I will do a very complete blood analysis. Including all the usual parameters plus TPO, E, T, and others that my doctor will suggest for sure.

My general practitioner is a very good doctor, always concerned about his patients. However, he is a bit out when it came to hormones, wich I think is perfectly normal, considering he is a gp.
After getting the results, I´m going to an endocrinologist, and hear his opinion.

Has I said before, and considering the precious advices, I´m not going to worry too much, but better safe than sorry...