Mine is 0 and I still needed more meds. My free T3 and free T4 were not high enough. TSH is a useless lab when it comes to hypo treatment.

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

my TSH, T4 and T3 are all within normal range. It took endocrinologist about 8 months after surgery removing 1/2 to get the dose correct (she told me it could be up to one year). She added cytomel to the synthroid and that made all of the difference with energy. Synthroid in a.m. with cytomel and more cytomel at 1 P.M. No more hair loss and no more 2-3 hour naps in afternoon and more clear thinking. It is rather complicated and specialized....changes the dose after tests and calculates the dose very carefully using a formula that I do not understand...I had to take algebra over and that was 50 years ago. Good luck with your doc. hunting!

Shivits,
My Endo put me on 1 Grain of Armour, then Cytomel once with the Armour in the AM. Last visit he added another Cytomel for the afternoon. I'm curious, do you eat at regular hours and have any trouble remembering to take the Cytomel in the afternoon. I don't always eat at the same time and have a hard time regulating the meds. How do you handle the time frames for your meds??.

Hope I made sense.

Ginny:flowerforyou:

I'm at 4.8

My first test showed 8,3. I've been on 50 mcg of Levothyroxin for about 6 weeks and just went in yesterday for a follow up

It horrifies me how many uneducated endocrinologists who refuse to remain current with research there seem to be out there. The diagnostic criteria for hypothyroid recently dropped from TSH of 4.5 to 3.5 and is expected to further drop to 2.5 within the next few years. Yet, labs still list the old diagnostic criteria of 4.5 as the highest acceptable level. My understanding is that the golden number for TSH level is 1.0-1.9 relative to the resolution of the person's symptoms. There is no one size fits all. If your endocrinologist tells you otherwise, then it is time to find yourself a new one.

That is what I had to do. I had symptoms for years, and my mother nagged me to get checked for hypothyroidism since it runs in the family. I finally did, and my TSH was 4.96, but my GP didn't want to treat for such a slightly high number. I made an appointment with an endocrinologist that my friend recommended. Aside from having no bedside manner, he refused to treat me because I tested negative for the Hashimoto's antibody even though he acknowledged the my thyroid was dead because it showed dark and hard on examination and my TSH was still 3.25. He told me I just needed to loose weight, which is actually when I joined here. After months of shame and loosing twenty pounds without feeling better, I went to another endocrinologist. My TSH was back up to 4.25, and this is when she told me about the above diagnostic criteria and that some people, especially with strong family histories, can have nonspecific hypothyroidism with no known cause. However, she still wanted to treat me. My TSH was 1.9 last visit and we agreed to up my dose one final time to get the numbers lower in preparation for pregnancy.

Sorry to ramble, but my point to everyone here is that, if you know something is wrong, keep going to doctors until you find one that takes you seriously. Even if medicine isn't the immediate answer, acknowledgement that your concerns and symptoms are real is something a doctor worth visiting should do!

I was at 3.8 forever and felt like crud. Finally convinced a doc to up the overall medication level by adding cytomel. Now I'm at 2.4 and feel much better. I don't know why these docs are so stingy with the thyroid meds. I mean, if "normal" is .5-5, why the hell not just treat it down to 2 instead of 4 if people still have the symptoms that brought them in for treatment in the first place?

In January 2011, after about a year of not being able to afford medications because I lost my job, I was tested at TSH 361 and Free T4 at .21 They immediately started my medications again (at the last dosage I was on) and started testing me again. I tested out at 1.28 in March so they left me alone. Then in August I was feeling awful again and asked to be tested, he only tested my TSH and it was 3.61... He didn't feel that needed a change in medication.

I still feel like crap but, lucky me! My levels are just fine so there's nothing to worry about, right? :mad:

It was 6.89 when I was diagnosed. Last test it was 2.64 and she wants to get it down closer to 1. I'm currently on 100 mcg of Levothyroxine. Hopefully next test will be closer to 1.

I was diagnosed 6 years ago at TSH 6.6, then while taking levo continued to shoot up. TSH was at 50+ before it started to turn back down. Every 3-6 months the perscription was being upped. It hasn't been stable until ths year and I now run at a TSH 4.5-4.6 for the last 6 months on 325mcg of Synthroid.

If the thyroid is failing it may continue to decline in function over time. Some have also suggested that when introducing Levo or Syntroid the Thyroid gets "lazy" and doesn't work as hard. Don't know if I subscribe to that thought though.

I take mine at night, before going to bed and at least 3 hours after a mea/snack. I found it much easier to do then getting up in the middle of the night, or first thing in the morning. I am a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast, and I like my milk or kefir, and if I skip I am generally not feeling well untill I eat something. Since Calcium reduces the effectiveness of Synthroid or Levothyroxine I didn't want risk the effectivness if I didn't wait long enough. Doc said 30 Min, but I have heard others say 2 hours.

Almost everyone posting have in my mind firly low dozes of levothyroxine/Synthroid, I am wondering if anyone else is such a high dose. I am wondering what their experience was and what they are doing now. I have never been on armor but I am seriously wondering if the continued increase of Synthroid is a dead end.

There are so many symptoms related to HypoT, but the once I experienced where weight gain and difficulty loosing weight. Despite strict diets and execise. Cold, though at the moment I only feel that at night or after exercise. Joint aches that are worse in the mornings and not in the eveing. Itching, it drives me nuts and moisturisers help but doesn't remove it.

What I have not experienced is depression, complete fatigue, and other mood related disorders. Well, none that I attribute to Thyroid function anyway. :-)