Am I Addicted to Synthroid?

[jdtm]

I know that I am under medicated (see previous post - Where is “normal” and where is “below normal”).  So yesterday when I visited the health centre, the doctor (a resident) said my blood work showed that I was receiving the correct amount (88 mcg of Synthroid).  I told him I felt better on the previous dosage of 112 mcg.  He said the blood work was correct and my explanation was incorrect and he would not increase my dosage.  He then said that I probably got a “high” from the additional Synthroid - maybe even addicted.  At this point, I was so upset that I got up and left.  Now what?  Lose 20 pounds so the 88 mcg will correspond to 106 pound body weight (I am small so this weight would look O.K. on my body).  We live in a small rural town so there are not a lot of medical options.  I am so tired of condescending and misogynistic male physicians!

[ando35]

Your right, if he had a vagina this never would have happened!

[flyingfool]

You have EVERY right to be upset. The resident is not worth going back to!

Please post your lab results with the reference ranges.  With this information the folks here can better assess your situation.

And you have BETTER have more than just TSH which is completely useless in basing dosage levels. TSH is a scanning/screening test at best, and is just short of completely useless once you are on thyroid medication.

Also please list the symptoms you have now other than body weight concerns.

The Dr's response indicates the indoctrination training he/she has received in medical school.  Believing that the reference ranges are gospel and ignoring the patients clinical response.  Remaining with a Dr with such "reference range endocrinology" will often leave the patient under-medicated and not feeling the best.

Worse yet is "immaculate TSH" belief.  As TSH as described above is worthless.  To get a more accurate picture of your true thyroid situation, you MUST get at least the two following tests:

1) Free T4 - Insist on "free"  this is not referencing the cost of the test. Rather it measures the "free" and unbound thyroid molecule that is not bound to a protein making it useless.  A "total" T4 will count both bound (useless) and unbound (free) molecules, but without knowing what percentage is free and usable by  your body's cells, The "total T4" test is obsolete and not of much value.

2) Free T3 - Again must insist on the "Free" molecule test for the same reasons.  The Free T3 molecule is the ONLY thyroid hormone that is ACTUALLY used by your body's cells.  the free T4 molecule is converted by your body (mostly in the liver) into T3 which is then used by your cells.

TSH is a pituitary hormone and is NOT even a thyroid hormone. It is a brain hormone that tells the thyroid gland to turn up, or down the amount of thyroid hormone to be produced by your thyroid gland.  And as stated, is unreliable to be used to fine tune dosage level of thyroid replacement drug.

[jdtm]

I posted this information in the above-mentioned  post.  gimel replied with a thoughtful, intelligent and (in my estimation) a correct answer.  The resident doctor would not even listen or allow any explanation - I was totally wrong and he set out to “prove” his case.  (I had the medhelp.org  printouts in hand, but I did not leave them as I knew he deemed them as “fake news”).  When I challenged him, he claimed I was addicted, and well - you know the rest.

Thanks so much for the support.  Now, where do I go?

[Barb135]

There's no such thing as "addiction" to thyroid hormones.  Every one of us needs adequate medication in order to feel well.  

I agree with flyingfool - try to find a different doctor, even if it means traveling (if possible) to find someone who will treat adequately.  

Can you give us a link to your other thread, please?

[jdtm]

I don’t know how to add a link, but I made the post on Nov 12, 2020.
Hopefully, it should be easy to find.

[Barb135]

I'll try to find it, but to add a link, go to the thread in question and open it.  Then at the top of the page, copy (highlight, right click, copy) the address, then come back here and paste (right click, paste).