DJ
I am in in JAX, and started using Dr Purcell on Monroe street. I was using a functional doctor on Butler but decidied I was missing something. Dr Purcell is VERY thorough! He also has Hashis and Celiacs so he is very motivated to help!
Unfortunately I had to wait 3 months to see him, he is high in demand!
If you have more questions you can PM me.
Regards
T
Sorry I haven't been on, to respond. Odd that the lab didn't specify. The result does look like Total testosterone. You'll want to talk to your doctor about supplementing, but I really think you need a different doctor, as yours doesn't seem very knowledgeable.
It just says testoterone on the lab.
If you can let me know where, in FL, I can possibly give you the name of a member recommended thyroid doctor. We have several in the state.
Do you know if the testosterone is total or free? It should say on your lab report. From what I've read, Total test for your age group should be around 600, so you'll certainly want to research the pituitary issue further.
There's a condition called hypopituitarism, in which the pituitary gland does not produce enough of the hormones to stimulate other glands i.e TSH to stimulate the thyroid, luteinizing hormone to stimulate testosterone secretion, ACTH to stimulate cortisol production, etc. Hypopituitarism can affect one or more of the endocrine glands (thyroid, reproductive, pancreas, adrenals and others).
In the case of the thyroid, the thyroid could be working properly, but there's not enough TSH to stimulate the thyroid to produce the hormones, so they will need to replaced with either the levothyroxine or another type of thyroid replacement.
Likewise, other hormones may need to be replaced, as well, if the pituitary is not producing the stimulating hormones needed.
Good thing I clarified that before I asked about your periods, wasn't it? LOL
With your low TSH, it looks like you might have central hypothyroidism, which is a pituitary issue, but you'd still need thyroxine, anyway. So, yes, you should ask for a trial dose, but you'll probably, eventually need more than 25 mcg.
You should also ask for Free T3, which is the thyroid hormone that's used by the individual cells.
In addition, just to be safe, you should ask for thyroid antibodies to rule out Hashimoto's (pretty sure you don't have it, but we want to be positive). The tests you need are Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPOab) and Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb). You need them both to an accurate diagnosis, as some with Hashimoto's have one or the other, some have them both.
Are you by any chance in U.K?
I am a 26 year old male. There was no age group reference. Sorry about the profile mix up. I am new to this lol. Should I consider requesting to be pit on 25mcg of thyroxine? Or do I potentially have a pituitary disorder?
Kick your doctor to the curb, quickly, and find a different one, since, apparently, yours is, either blind or doesn't know how to read... How can he possibly look at an FT4 result of 0.76 and say it's "normal" when it's below the low reference of 0.8?
I guarantee he was looking only at the TSH, which would be within the reference range.
That and the fact that he didn't order and FT3, which is the most important of the thyroid hormones, since it's the hormone actually used by the individual cells, tells me he doesn't know much about thyroid.
Moving on to the testosterone... Your profile says you're female, so let's verify that, before we go too much further... I've gotten into trouble with this before.. lol Does the lab report break down reference ranges for various age groups? Testosterone is not one of my main areas of expertise, but I do know that as we age testosterone levels decline. That said, I don't know your age, so I don't know if your levels "should" be declining or not.
Even though labs are within the reference ranges, doesn't mean you can't have a problem.