These are my lab results, but I'm not sure how to analyze them. Any thoughts?

TSH 5.190 range: 0.40-4.5
Free T3 1.8 range: 1.6-5.6
Total T3 95 range: 84-172
T4 9.4 range: 4.7-11.0

I know the TSH is high, and I have doubled my Armour thyroid to 30mg, but I don't really know if the others are a concern. Should you be in the middle of the range? I'm getting new labs in 4 weeks on the new dosage.

Thanks for your help.

Kat

TSH should be around 1, FT4 midrange and FT3 in the upper 2/3 of range. Do you have Hashi's? Also when did you take your meds when you tested? You should have blood drawn between 4-5 hrs after your morning thyroid meds if possible. It's a slow process to get thyroid meds optimized but titreing up slowly is usually best.

My doc didn't run the TPO test for Hashi's. I'll have to ask about it next time. I had told her that my sister was just diagnosed with MS (although she's probably had it for a long time) so she ran other auto-immune tests ANA Screen, Anti-Streptolysin O, C-Reactive Protein, Rheumatoid Factor -- and those were all negative or normal. I may not have Hashi's because I believe I've been hypothyroid for my entire life -- although I'm not sure that's a correlation.

Yes, my blood draw was at least 5 hours after my meds. I'll be getting new tests in a couple of weeks to see what my new levels are -- I'm going to push for the low range of TSH, so that may take quite awhile to get there.

Thanks for the help.

Yeah, 15mg of armour is like nothing! Even 30mg is a teeny dose. Are you taking something else as well?

Your TSH should be lower, definitely. Your FT3 is very low too. You want to be towards the top of the range of that. The other ones. If you're taking enough armour your TSH should be quite low. T3 seems to suppress it more than T4-only does.

No, I'm not taking anything else prescribed. Before I started reading up on thyroid, I was often in the "normal" range, but barely -- always just about to get to 5. My docs always prescribed a small amount of levothyroxine, but that just kept me in that "normal" spot, and I never improved. At the time I didn't realize that I should be much closer to the low end of the TSH range, not the high. My current doc is not great, but I was able to convince her to run FT3 and prescribe me Armour. So I think she will work with me to keep increasing doses, doing tests, and to get me to a much more therapeutic range.

I am taking D3, coconut oil, chromium, cinnamon, and other supplements to help with insulin resistance and pre-diabetes (fasting BG down to 84 from 98). And I did stop the statins and blood pressure meds -- no longer necessary. So my body is definitely changing its chemistry, I'm just not sure why it seems to have affected my thyroid negatively.

thoughts?

declining progesterone, low ferritin and low B12 can all affect the thyroid. Most women over the age of 35 have declining levels of progesterone, at first it's not too much of a problem as the thyroid kicks in and tries to help but eventually it can no longer sustain the effort and the thyroid starts to fail as well.

Have you had the repro hormones and ferritin tested as well? (you need good levels of ferritin to convert from T4 to T3)

You know, thyroid tests are like the gas gauge on your car. I like having the tank full rather than running on fumes. My car might still be moving if the needle is on empty, but it seems like if it's on FULL that's optimal.

That's why we need to always get our lab reports and research these things. There's a big difference between "in range" and optimal.