FT4, fatigue and levothyroxine

Heya bobble, 

Slightly concerned, so have a couple of questions before I give my opinion if that's OK? 

Which doctor is changing your dose? GP or Consultant? 

Did you have thyroid cancer?

You give your T4 results, do you know your TSH results?

Thanks in advance, 

Lass

Xx

Hi Lass - I don’t have the TSH to hand but know they’ve all been around the 0.05 area (certainly less than 0.10). 

I had papillary thyroid cancer, treated with full removal of thyroid (in two stages) and RAI (low dose). “All clear” last November and the oncologist discharged me for care under an endocrinologist who has reduced the dose. 

Ok, so, it's a bit complicated all of this.

So, looking at the results you've given here it looks like you've been hyperthyroid for a while. This could mean that you were operating at a higher level than is 'normal', so when you are brought down to a normal range, you feel tired. When actually, this is just the normal level people operate at. The same goes for weight. When you're hyperthyroid, then your metabolism will often work faster than it should. This then means you can eat more in quantity or eat more junk and not put on weight. When you're brought down to normal levels, your metabolism starts working at a more normal speed, so you put on weight because you can't eat as you used to.

As you're nowhere near the bottom of the scale, it's unlikely that you're hypothyroid. So I'm afraid it's more likely that you're just coming down from being hyper to being normal, which can be quite an adjustment.

As long as your TSH is suppressed to where it should be, that's the main worry. The only other thing I could suggest is to ask for either your GP or your endo to test your T3 to make sure there's no conversion issue. If that number comes back as ok, then I'm afraid it sounds like a case of adjusting back to being 'normal' again.

Lass

xx