From what I understand about TSH, the higher the number the more hypo you are, lower the number and you enter in to hyper territory. Since your reading was well below range it makes sense that your doc would want to try a lower dose. It's taken me forever to get properly situated and even now I have a feeling my dose might have swung too high with my weight loss.

Sorry, I should have explained that!! Your thyroid basically needs T4 (inactive hormone) to convert to T3 (active hormone) to make your metabolism work. (this is an over-simplification, since it also needs healthy adrenals, iron, Vitamin D, etc.)

If your T3 levels are high or normal you should feel pretty good.. that's the active hormone and your metabolism is probably doing ok.

When you are hypothyroid, your T4 levels go LOW - your thyroid is underactive and not producing enough T4 --> your pituitary gland tries to get your thyroid to make more T4 by putting out TSH - Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. If your T4 stays LOW, your pituitary pumps out more and more TSH -- and your TSH goes HIGH. This is classic hypothyroidism.

When your TSH is LOW, that means there is plenty of T4 in your system and your pituitary doesn't need to ask for more.

Here's the problem -- if they aren't measuring your T3, only your TSH -- they are not telling the whole story. How does the doctor know that your thyroid is adequately converting T4 to T3? So, if your TSH is low or normal you have plenty of T4, but what about T3?

That's why TSH is not a good indication of how you are doing -- it's an incomplete picture. Your doctor needs to treat your symptoms, not just your TSH labs. you can find more info on www.stopthethyroidmadness.com.

Terri

I have been taking the lower dosage of Armour-60 from 90 for about a week now= I feel terrible. Just like I did on Synthoid=sleeping late-waking up and not being able to fall back to sleep, no energy. I am so frustrated because I felt sooooooooo good on the higher dosage!!!
I have a Dr.s appt. this Friday(may 4th) and I am taking all the comments on here with me.
Sorry, I needed to vent to someone.
Shirl:sad:

I feel your pain,
I have been self treating with Armour for almost 3 months. worked my way up slowly to 210mg and felt great better that i have for longer than i care to remember..
So like you after 8 weeks i did blood work and THS was suppressed 0.008, FT3 was just over range, T4 upper range. So just like your Dr. mine wants me to lower my dose.
So here's the plan.......
I am one week at 180mg, and feeling the slip already, blurred vision, headaches, not quite as much energy as last week.
But as this Doc is willing to Px Armour i will play the game for the next couple of weeks, hopefully get the blood results where she likes them.
Then start to raise again until i'm symptom free, i may have to do this before all blood work in the future.
How is your Iron & ferritin, Do you supplement with selenium ( it is supposed to help with the conversion T4 to T3).
Check out www.stopthethyroidmadness.com
Join their face book page, lots of very knowledgeable people there giving advice.

best wishes
Linda

Because of the very quick 1/2 life on Armour - I always avoided taking my dose right before a blood test. I felt my results were scewed high. Check with your doc and/or Armour.

Agree!! don't take Armour on the morning you are having blood work!

I too am on Armour 60 mg and I have been for about 6 weeks now. Initially for the 1st week I felt a bit hyper, but all of my other
symptoms for hypothyroidism quite quickly actually went away once I changed my medicine to Armour. I still tend to wake up
at night 1 to 2 times and generally only sleep now 7 hours rather than 8 hours, but I feel refreshed and actually very good. At 5 weeks I had my blood work done. My T3 had gone up a bit to 125, but it was still in the normal range. My T4 went down to 1.0 but was in the normal range also. My TSH dropped down to 0.03, which is below normal. Per my doctor he said to stay on it for several more weeks to give it time to take full effect, then come in for testing. At this point I am now suffering from low hyperthyroidism, but he doesn't want to change my medicine yet. I know there is a dosage a bit lower, but he wants me to stay where I am. The only thing that I have noticed is I have put 2 lbs on during this 6 weeks, which I had lost. Could also be from going back onto my estrogen to try to help my sleeping problems. I am just thankful I still have lots of energy and I am no longer cold, but I do have a tendency to not be able to deal with the heat now. Oh well thank goodness for air conditioning ! Hopefully you get your dosage resolved quickly.

Has he tested your adrenals? Sometimes when you levels are normal, but you still have symptoms, it's because of adrenal fatigue. Could also be low Ferritin/Iron. Armour does it's best in the presence of optimized adrenals.