Joymommy
September 4th, 2010, 05:07 PM
Hi there,
I've had hyperthyroidism for a while. It started postpartum almost 2 years ago. At first we thought it was postpartum thyroiditis but I went to a different doc and they decided it was most likely Graves. (My mom had Graves as well) It was unusual that my T4 without any treatment gradually improved. It started at 4.5 or so and got down to 2.5 at least without any medication. I was trying to wait it out and do some healthful things first. Then I got pregnant and miscarried and things seemed to be worse so I finally decided to go on PTU back in Jan. I've been on it since - 100 mg 3x/day. In July I was tested and my T4 was normal but not my T3 and still undetectable TSH. My doc at the time recommended I go off my meds and see if I've attained remission which didn't make sense to me since my TSH was undetectable. So I saw another doc in the clinic and he agreed with me and had me tested the end of Aug. and also had the T3 tested since he thought my T3 may have still been high. He just sent a letter and said the T3 & T4 are both in the normal range but the TSH is still undetectable and thinks I may never be able to attain remission. Does anyone have any experience with this? With what I've read is that the TSH is always the last thing to normalize and that it can take 6 weeks + to reflect the changes that the T4/T3 have made. I've only been on medication a little over 7 months so I think I could still keep taking the PTU a while longer to see if the TSH gets back to normal and still try for remission. Anyone have any experiences with their TSH taking a while to normalize but still attaining remission? Thanks.
Melanie
I've had hyperthyroidism for a while. It started postpartum almost 2 years ago. At first we thought it was postpartum thyroiditis but I went to a different doc and they decided it was most likely Graves. (My mom had Graves as well) It was unusual that my T4 without any treatment gradually improved. It started at 4.5 or so and got down to 2.5 at least without any medication. I was trying to wait it out and do some healthful things first. Then I got pregnant and miscarried and things seemed to be worse so I finally decided to go on PTU back in Jan. I've been on it since - 100 mg 3x/day. In July I was tested and my T4 was normal but not my T3 and still undetectable TSH. My doc at the time recommended I go off my meds and see if I've attained remission which didn't make sense to me since my TSH was undetectable. So I saw another doc in the clinic and he agreed with me and had me tested the end of Aug. and also had the T3 tested since he thought my T3 may have still been high. He just sent a letter and said the T3 & T4 are both in the normal range but the TSH is still undetectable and thinks I may never be able to attain remission. Does anyone have any experience with this? With what I've read is that the TSH is always the last thing to normalize and that it can take 6 weeks + to reflect the changes that the T4/T3 have made. I've only been on medication a little over 7 months so I think I could still keep taking the PTU a while longer to see if the TSH gets back to normal and still try for remission. Anyone have any experiences with their TSH taking a while to normalize but still attaining remission? Thanks.
Melanie