Hi, everyone. I posted here a few weeks ago, and I thought this would be a good place to come back to now that I have a little more information. I'll try to be brief...
29 year-old male, came down with alopecia a few months ago, dermatologist ordered labs, TSH = 3.61 and Free T4 = 1.4.
Derm flagged free t4 incorrectly, but by the grace of God, it caused me to come here to realize that TSH is a bit off. Rather than go directly to an endocrinologist, which can take months, I went to my primary doctor on my day off to order more tests.
She's on vacation right now so I don't have #'s to post, but she left me a message the day before she left: my thyroid itself is functioning normally (making the right about of hormones, doing the right things with them), but I do have anti-thyroid antibodies (she tested for TPO and Tg, so I don't know if I have one or both). For function, she tested for the 5 or 6 things that are normally recommended here - Free t4, t3, and she repeated TSH.
She recommended at the very least monitoring thyroid function every 3 months or so.
However, in reading a lot over the last few weeks, I realize that some other symptoms I've had for years could be thyroid-related. I wouldn't consider them all that debilitating, and very possible that they're from a different problem, but they are: fatigue (I need a lot of sleep to get by day-to-day for as far as I can remember - I noticed it after I had mono at age 6), mildly depressed at times, low sex drive forever (29/male!). I also am at times anxious (doesn't go w/ hypo) and my blood pressure is somewhat higher than ideal (does go w/ hypo, but also the anxiety).
I don't have a goiter or anything, and with eating the right things and exercising, I've had no trouble dropping 20 pounds since Christmas. I weight just 5 lb more than my goal.
With all that said, I'd like your input:
(a) Should I just continue to monitor the thyroid, and if so, how often and which tests should I make sure get done?
(b) In light of alopecia, anti-bodies, TSH consistently in the mid/high 3's, and mild forms of some of the symptoms, should I demand treatment? If so, what should I ask for? After all, my thyroid, though it needs more stimulation than ideal, is making enough hormone right now. I'm not sure that taking supplemental hormones would help - esp. since my TSH isn't that awful just yet. And I'm not sure whether the symptoms are thyroid-related after all. If they are usually due to a hormone shortage, I don't have one yet.
I have a feeling that right now, I'm a very borderline case, but if taking a small dose of some medicine might get rid of some lifelong annoying symptoms, why not try it? I also feel that given that I'm such a borderline case, I may need to fight harder than usual for treatment (or at least to get a referral for a thyroid specialist).
OK, that's more than enough for one post!