Blood tests say "normal", uptake says hyper

[silverrose]

I had postpartum thyroiditis after my daughter was born. Since then, my hyper symptoms have gone away and I felt better for a little while. Now I'm feeling hypo symptoms including fatigue, trouble losing weight, brittle nails, almost nonexistant period, trouble concentrating, etc. but my blood work says "normal." Oh, and I have a goiter on the right side. I'm going to see an endo in October, but I was wondering if anyone else has had "normal" blood tests and still had the disorder. There is an extensive history of it in my family, and it seems to rear it's ugly head after childbirth as the only two women who DON'T have it haven't had kids yet. If you're interested, my latest results were T4 - 1.26, ref. .61-1.76; and TSH - .501, ref. .350-5.500. Any insight?

[GD Women]

Its not unusual for women to have thyroid issues after birth and in most cases it will resolve itself in time, as your Labs show. Levels are the prevailing diagnose of thyroid condition and other test, if needed, will confirm.

There are a lot of other health conditions that share thyroid symptoms, both hypo or hyper.
They would need to be eliminated through test before blaming thyroid, especially with normal thyroid levels. Then its a possibility that you might need to treat each symptom separate from each other and from thyroid, regardless. Thyroid treatment is not necessarily a cure-all.

Wish my levels were as good as yours.

[worriedmother]

my daughters blood test which the doctor only checked TSh,T3 and T4 were ok according to the info I got from the nurse and to have them checked in 2 or 3 months... they did not check Thyroxine /TotalT3 or ThyroglobinAB or Thyroxine Peroxidase AB she has every symptom of hypo thyroid

[NastyHashi]

Well there you have it. When I first got checked, my main labs were nearly perfect. T4 in range, T3 in range, TSH just slightly high.

After months of feeling like crap and dealing with daily panic attacks I convinced a doctor to check my antibodies.

TPO > 1300
TG Ab > 2700
TSI (Graves) > 175

I found out that I not only had a wicked case of Hashi's but in fact had some form of Graves' as well. What was happening was the speeding up due to Graves was cancelling the slowing down due to Hashis and the net result were labs that looked correct. In the mean time, intra-day fluctuation almost drove me to the funny farm.

She needs more labs:

TPO Ab
TG Ab
TSI
Thyroglobin

...and I would add to rule out others:

Cortisol
24 hour Catecolamine (adrenaline urine test)
Pituitary function and/or pituitary MRI if possible
Sonogram of thyroid
A1C

If you are able to find a good Endo, you could suggest these tests and hope he goes for it or at least tries to start ruling things out.

She needs to be tested. There's no doubt about it.

[GD Women]

They did the Thyroxine /TotalT3, which is the T-3.

The other test, antibodies, where not warranted per your daughters original test. Thyroid conditions are diagnosed and treated by thyroid level. Antibody just confirm what the thyroid levels already reveal. Antibodies are not treatable nor curable - nothing they can do about them.
People that do not have thyroid conditions can have antibodies, as well as other health conditions, that is one reason why diagnose is based on thyroid levels .
If antibodies were done and revealed autoimmune thyroid, autoimmune thyroid is treated the same as hypo or hyper, therefore another reason why thyroid levels are the prevailing diagnose and for treatment.

It is suggested to have test done again after a few months to see if they repeat results in case of any type of error. Then on a regular bases, 6/12 months to see if her levels get better or worse.

Perhaps something else is going on with your daughter. Thyroid symptoms are so non-specific. In other words, a lot of other health conditions have the same symptoms as thyroid, it is very difficult to distinguish where the symptoms are coming from or which health conditions are the cause.
None of the thyroid hormone medications or drugs are a 100 percent cure-all for symptoms. You might have to treat each symptom separately from each other and from what is thought to be caused by thyroid.

People get a lot of misinformation from the internet by not going to legit sites to get their info., including symptom, blaming thyroid for everything. When they should be listening to and trusting their doctor. Legit sites such as, Thyroid Associations, Thyroid Orgs., Government and Medical sites. All my knowledge comes from these sites and some times from my own personal experience.


I hope your daughter and you, find closure to her health issues soon.