Some people, especially people who have been on thyroid replacement hormone for a long time, do best with what is called a "suppressed" TSH. This means the TSH is very low or actually not traceable at all. Especially with an autoimmune disease, this is important for the health of the patient because a lot of what makes you sick with the disease is triggered by the TSH.
To give you some understanding of why you need to have your T3 and T4 levels tested, here is a little explanation:
TSH is Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. It is actually a hormone that comes from the pituitary gland. The pituitary is supposed to tell the thyroid how much hormone you need.
T4 is thyroxine. It is a thyroid hormone and the "inactive" form. T4 converts to T3 which is tri-iodothyronine, the "active" version of thyroid hormone. T3 is what actually gets to your cells.
So when the doctor measures your TSH, (s)he is actually measuring a pituitary function. To measure thyroid function one must measure T3 and T4, especially in a patient who has been on hormone for a long time like you. Both hormones must be measured because sometimes T4 does not convert well to T3 and this is something that we need to know about, or the patient will not feel better on T4 only medication like synthroid.
So if I were you I'd suggest getting a full thyroid panel done with FREE T3 and FREE T4. It may be that TSH is just no longer a good indicator of your thyroid status.
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PCOS+IR, Hypothyroidism
Sleep Apnea (cured by tonsillectomy)
Age 31, DH 39, 4 furrball babies!
Logan Scott born April 9, 2004!
Conor James born Nov 1, 2006.
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