I find Stop the thyroid Madness, site invaluable for information. In the US they are able to say which endocrinologists are well versed in thyroid issues in any given area.

The site also gives possible reasons for low thyroid hormone problems, one is not consuming enough iodine and related minerals selenium for one. Most references suggest that 150 mcg is the amount of iodine needed on a daily basis. People who are vegetarian or vegan or living on a restricted diet are more likely to become iodine deficient. Foods rich in iodine are dairy, eggs, many dark green veg, a variety of fish species and some fruits though the soil conditions can make a difference. 100 ml of milk provides apx 30. A medium egg about 24.

It has been shown where there is a good supply of iodine and selenium even those who have immune issues experience improvement in their conditions. The presence of selenium facilitates hormone production and can block excess iron which can prevent t4's being converted into t3 which is the active hormone it also reduces the inflammation.

Please do your own reading and I suggest you ensure you are achieving at least the regularly quoted guidelines. Thyroid UK says up to 300 is safe. I read somewhere, 600 is too high. This would be unless you were being treated by a qualified person who will sometimes treat to higher numbers.

confused condition of thyroid...

I've taken "Thyroid Armour" before and liked it. I had an adverse reaction to "Levothyroxine" (water (?) weight gain of 20+ lbs in a couple days). I like that Thyroid Armor is a better rounded thyroid replacement. Recently, however, due to cost, I have started taking "Nature Thyroid" which seems to be equivalent to "Thyroid Armour". I've heard of physicians treating those on the outer ranges of "normal" that are symptomatic, and honestly, agree with it. It's taken some time to titrate my meds to a therapeutic dose, but I won't go without my thyroid meds (if i can help it). It's made a world of difference in so many things (skin, sleep, mood, etc).

A couple things come to mind -- and I'm in the low normal or low group -- depends on when the test is done as my readings have been all over the place.

First, as someone else said, you should have the antibody test done -- TPO and Tg -- for Hashimotos. If you have Hashi's (and it's the most common hypo condition out there), it will impact how your tests are read. When you have the antibodies, it's literally iimpossible to know how much they're impacting you -- they could be blocking 20% of our sites or 80% of your sites. So the raw numbers aren't as helpful because you don't know what is the truly effective numbers. Docs then should look at the tests but also give considerable weight to your symptoms. I've got Hashi's and my symptoms don't go away until I'm in the upper third of the "normal" range. I've found this to be super common among us Hashi's people -- because some amount of our hormones are rendered ineffective from the antibodies. When we have flare-ups, much more so.

Also, has your doctor checked your DHEA and other adrenal hormones? This has a huge interplay with your thyroid. Almost all women that have hypothyroid issues have low DHEA and when you get your DHEA in line, you can often lower your thyroid dose.

Lastly, has your doctor checked some of the other common culprits associated with similar hypo symptoms -- iodine, magnesium, Vitamin D, A1C (for insulin resistance)? I personally had very low vitamin D, magnesium and insulin resistance -- very common for those that have a long untreated thyroid condition.

Unfortunately, a lot of endos suck at thyroid. Many tend to be very good with diabetes, but few focus on thyroid. Really make sure that you're speaking with a thyroid specialist -- whether it's an endo or functional MD. In my experience, there are more thyroid savvy functional MDs out there than endos. I was told I was "fine" or "within range" for 10 years by 5 different docs (including 2 endos) before I finally got hooked up with a true thyroid specialist (and he's educated my GP considerably -- and to her credit, she's been very embracing of the new information, especially since she was one of the people that told me I was "fine"). The results have been night-and-day. The vast majority of my hypo symptoms are gone and I was finally able to lose weight like a normal person -- it felts so awesome not to feel like I was going totally nuts with weight loss/maintenance. It's also awesome to not be cold all the time, tired/fatigued (probably my worst symptom), constipated, and sleep through the night (before treatment I don't think I'd ever slept through the night completely before -- likely linked most closely with the low DHEA levels). Now, it all makes sense and works just how it's supposed to.