What is TSH is reverse mirror of thyroid functon ??

[makintosh99]

I recently visited my doctor, had lab work for thyroid disoder. Today my doctor wrote , "Your TSH leve is a sort of reverse mirror of thyroid function. It tends to go up when your thyroid function is lower than normal and down it is too high . i dont know what this means although she says : your result is 1.324 uIU/ml which is normal

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

[makintosh99]

Thank you for your answers to my questions, very helpful indeed.

[Barb135]

If your thyroid is not putting out enough hormone (T4 and T3), your pituitary gland will pump out more TSH, hoping to stimulate the thyroid into producing more hormone.  If your thyroid is producing too much of the hormones, your pituitary gland will stop pumping out TSH in an effort to get your thyroid to stop with the hormones.  

Like goolarra said -- just because your TSH is normal, though, does not mean that your thyroid function is okay too.  With TSH being a pituitary hormone, it's not a real good indicator of what the thyroid is actually doing.  You need the Free T3 and Free T4 tests to get those answers.  

Now --- I hope I didn't confuse the issue even further............

[Terri627]

You can also look at it this way... TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone)..when your thyroid is functioning properly, your body doesn't have to compensate by producing as much tsh. When your thyroid function is low, your body compensates by producing more tsh, and when it is high, the less tsh is produced. Have I confused the answer?? I hope not, it took me a long time to understand it myself. TSH is not the actual thyroid level, but the hormone that stimulates the thyroid to work. You will learn a lot about the different tests on this forum. There are a lot of very experienced people here.

[goolarra]

Your doctor means that the results of a TSH test are kind of "upside-down".  When your thyroid function is low, your TSH is high, and when your thyroid function is high, your TSH is low.  A TSH of 1.324 is within reference range.  However, if you really want to know what your thyroid is doing, you should have free T3 and free T4 tested.  These are much more important than TSH and can indicate a thyroid problem even when TSH is "normal".