treatment of hypothyroidism

[rosie11111]

Hello, I'm new to this site and I thank you in advance for answering my question.  I have never had a weight issue until a year and a half ago, when in addition to weight gain I was also experiencing dry skin, thinning hair, fatigue etc. and my doctor diagnosed that my TSH level was 30.17 , a huge jump from my normal level of 1.5.  He put me on Levothyroxine .1mg in Feb 2009.  My subsequent blood tests show that my TSH level has been slowly decreasing, from .24 to .11 to .07 and my doctor has reluctantly and after much insistence from myself decreased my Levothyroxine to .075 mg.  I say that I have been insistent because despite my best efforts ( running 3 miles a day plus freeweights etc. and watching my diet, I have not been able to lose the weight.  The only reason for this that I can see is that there is a problem with my dosage.  Am I correct or can there be other facors affecting my inability to lose the weight?

[rosie11111]

Thanks for the reply.  My free T4 was 24 which I understand is high.  As to how I feel, my earlier symptoms of dry skin, fatigue and hair loss have abated but my inability to lose the weight across my midsection is what I find very discouraging.

[Super_sally888]

Hi,

testing just tsh is not enough.  You also need to test ft3, ft4, which are the active thryoid hormones.  These must be in range, most likely in mid to upper normal range (though you should also make reference to how you feel).

If the FT3 is low, despite the T4 meds, you may need to add a t3 hormone (cytomel) or use natural thryoid which contains T3 in addition to T4.

Hope this helps.