Educate yourself. Read group, ask questions. Ask for help to explain things, read the thyroid patient advocate websites, listen to pod casts and books. Also, Facebook Thyroid awareness groups are a great place to learn.

I highly recommend the book "Stop the thyroid madness" revised by Janie A. Bowthorpe. It takes you step by step on what you can do to feel better with this craziness.. Also it will tell you how to find the right doctor for you, that will fully treat you to find your best treatment.

Find a doctor that listens to you and wishes to treat the symptoms. Most people feel better between 0.5 and 2. For me, being over 2 put my metabolism into a stall and then made my allergies go into overdrive which I am now trying to recover from right now. Being over the normal range, which was decreased to 0.5 to 3.0 in 2002, means that sometimes your doctor don't know what to do, isn't up to date to the current ranges or treatments and would rather under treat. Just remember to know your numbers, Make sure the new doctor tests your free's and to keep copy's of every lab and use them to find another doctor if needed.

"Normal" don't mean your at "Optimal"for you. Push back on the doctors and ask hard questions. First, I was told I didn't need cause my numbers were low but i have a very high family history of it. Then I was told I was "Normal" at 3.5 and yet, I had 10 different symptoms and had maybe 3 hours of activity a day and high fatigue. Took over 7 doctors and a year and a half to find a better one to get back on track. So far I am over 3 and half years into fixing things.

Fight for your health as being under treated can make you more able to get to heart problems, high cholesterol and diabetes later on in life.

Then research on what is a healthy diet for you as I have removed Soy, HFCS, caffine and ginger from my diet as well as making sure any goitergenic veggies are fully cooked like cauliflower or kale. Do what makes sense for you and yourself, and educate yourself as much as you can.

Good luck!

I totally agree with Lorcart. Life is too short to be kept sick by an ignorant doctor who has absolutely no interest in listening to their patients. Best way to find a GOOD doctor is by calling compounding pharmacies to find out who prescribes NDT, or Cytomel even. Trust me... I've gone through 6 doctors, and have missed out on the first 4 years of my daughters life because I was being kept sick. Its not any way to live.

I don't even understand why they would even think that it's a good idea to keep me at a high normal.

YES I agree totally! Stop the thyroid madness is a good one & TSH does NOT tell you the whole story! I hate when they go by that!

Well, my labs came back normal. Normal to them is 3.9. I feel like crap still! :sad: What the hell!?! I thought they'd at least want to get it lower than that. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go in to get the cortisol checked and have my enlarged thyroid checked.

Oh wow....like everyone else has said that is NOT ok, and you need a new doctor.

First and foremost, since 2002 the recommended TSH range is .3-3.0...therefore even by those standards your levels are NOT NORMAL!! That is likely to drop to 2.5 in the near future, and many even partially-educated docs suggest the top of the range should be 2.0.


All that said, TSH is a TERRIBLE measure of thyroid function. It's a pituitary gland hormone, that is often quite supressed in people who are taking thyroid supplements like you are. You need to get your free (not total) T3 tested and your free T4. Find a new doctor who will dose you based on those levels.


Meds: since you're taking a T4-only supplement you really need that T3 level tested. If your body is having any issues converting T4 into T3 (the active thyroid hormone) you'll continue to feel like crap no matter how high of a dose you're on. If your T3 is low you can look at adding a synthetic T3 like Cytomel, or switching to a natural supplement that contains both T3 and T4 (like Armour or Nature Thyroid).


I would also suggest getting your selenium, ferritin, iron, and Vit D levels checked.

Hi

What they also don't tell you is that is an 'average range amongst the local population' and it is the labs that decide on what that average will be. Thankfully I have a GP who does go by how I feel. I can lose weight when I am in the right frame of mind, however that is about 1 week every 4 months, I lose 1/2 stone and go down hill to put it all back on again!

Take care

Vicky x