Thyroid Panel Results and Interpretation

Pharma TRT
1

Quick back story.

I’ve always had problems with fatigue and just being weak in general. I was always physically unbelievably weak compared to my peers, as well as having low motivation and such. I also did a lot of swimming in chlorinated pools as a child for years and for many hours at a time, also took long 30 minute showers with very hot water. The water in my country is fluoridated, so I’ve been consuming tons of fluoride both transdermally and orally over the years before I moved country. I also had a serious soda addiction for like 15 years, giving up when I was around 22 years old (I’m 25 now) and soda contains a ton of bromide in the form of brominated vegetable oils. I’ve also basically had no iodine in my diet at all. Never ate iodised salt, always sea salt. I also never eat fish really.

I’ve had a thyroid test done before but all they did was TSH and it came back at 1.5 which they said was totally normal. I had a testosterone test and came back at 110 ng/dl, which of course is severely deficient. So I decided to make some lifestyle changes, I started working out, losing weight, eating better and taking supplements like magnesium, zinc, a strong Vitamin B complex, 5000 IU Vitamin D (have been tested since and am at optimal range according to Vitamin D council). The next testosterone test I did, I was at 393 ng/dl. It was a huge improvement of course but I still felt it was insanely hard to get any progress in terms of gains and people who never worked out and were clearly not that fit were still brutally stronger than me and had more endurance. So I still felt like something was wrong. So naturally when I came across the thyroid sticky about iodine deficiency, I was intrigued.

I loaded up on selenium (300 mcg) daily for a week, had already been taking magnesium (400mg) and vitamin C (1000mg) daily for a while and then I started an IR routine. I started just about 2 weeks ago and am basically almost finished. I ramped up quickly, from 12.5mg the first day to 25mg the next two days to 50mg from then onwards. I have to say, even from day 1 with 12.5mg I felt better than I can ever recall feeling. I had immense levels of energy, confidence that I’d never felt before, higher libido, all the works. I felt more emotion than ever, it was a stunning difference, I swear even my voice seems deeper, felt like a new man. Two weeks or so in and I feel the same effects really.

So anyway, one week in I got kinda paranoid about the whole hashimotos/graves possibly being triggered by iodine supplementation from reading about it online and about the vast disagreement and controversy within the scientific community about this whole thing right now. So I got a full thyroid panel done and the results are as follows:

Thyroxine (T4): 81 nmol/L
TSH: 4.13 mIU/L
Free Thyroxine (T4): 14.80 pmol/l
Free Triiodothyronine (T3): 4.00 pmol/L
TGAB: 9.90 IU/mL
TPEX: 10.60 IU/ml

I would be interested to hear what you guys think of these results one week into iodine supplementation. I’m going to get another thyroid panel done next week after I finish supplementation and also I’ll do another testosterone test soon to see if it had any effect.

2

We need lab ranges.

Thyroid labs are inadequate, you need Reverse T3 which can block Free T3 from entering your cells, also need antibodies which will tell you if your immune system is attacking the thyroid.

Typically thyroid labs are Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3 and antibodies. Reason doctors will drop the ball is do to lack of knowledge or is satisfying insurance companies by saving them money. None of your testosterone tests would support a healthy long life, within ranges mean very little.

Men with high normal testosterone have a 30% less likely chance of cardiac events and levels below 440 ng/dL is the cut off point for a lot of nasty diseases.

3

By this you mean that you need the ranges that my lab provided for those tests as in what they say is normal?

I don’t have rT3 but I have posted Anti-Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TGAB) and Anti-Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPEX)? Those should be the antibodies you’re talking about right? Or is there more antibodies tests I don’t know about?

The ranges are as follows if that’s what you were looking for:
Thyroxine T4: 59 - 154 nmol/L
TSH: 0.27 - 4.2 mIU/L
Free Thyroxine T4: 12 - 22 pmol/l
Free Triiodothyronine (T3): 3.1 - 6.8 pmol/L
Anti-Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TGAB): 0 - 115 IU/mL
Anti-Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPEX): 0 - 34 IU/ml

I will look at finding another private lab that will do rT3. It’s hard to get doctors to do what you want them to do here (socialised healthcare sucks).

4

When government is in control of medicine, there’s no evolution of medicine do to the state healthcare funding. There’s no private sector to advance medicine like there is here. You’re likely having thyroid issues because of a lack of iodine, this is why you felt better.

People in UK are mostly iodine deficient. Women are more susceptible to thyroid damage than men from a lack of iodine. Doctors are likely restricted from running necessary labs do to lack of funding and only treating the worse most severe cases as priority.

It’s similar to how insurance companies put roadblocks in our path to getting treatment in an effort to not have to put out money. We can always give them the middle finger and go to a private practice and pay cash. These places are more forgiving regarding the ranges, some clinics give you TRT when you score 550 ng/dL as the cut off point for treatment.

Reverse T3 is expected to be high, only problem is you will need time released T3 which is only available in the USA from compounding pharmacies. UK is stone age healthcare, they don’t have nothing. They just do what we do, it takes 10-20 years for them to do it.

5

Yeah man, I get it, trust me. I don’t live in the UK but the situation in many European countries is similar.

Yeah, I suspect it is the same here. I don’t really see where I’d be getting adequate iodine since I’m not a big bread eater and I never even knew about iodised salt, I just thought sea salt was the cool thing to use, family tradition passed down.

Yep, that’s the case here. You have to really fight them to get treatment. I’m wealthy though, so I can pay for private testing and clinics, it’s not an issue. Just need to know what to look for and then how to interpret it.

The good news is I have found another local private testing clinic that can do a range of blood tests, including rT3, so I will do a full panel including that next week hopefully. I’ll also be doing another testosterone test and a full vitamin/mineral breakdown.

I’ll report back here once I have more information.

6

I had higher TSH in the middle of Iodine Replenishment & it settled down as follows… KSMan did say in my original thread the high TSH during IR was fine.

Iodine Replenishment history. I started this a few months ago.

I did 2 weeks of 6.25mg of iodine per day. NO selenium - I hadn’t read that

The next 10 days I added 200mcg of selenium per day & I upped iodine to 12.5mg per day

The next 4 weeks I took 25mg of iodine per day & 200mcg of selenium per day. I wanted to take half the IR protocol dose of iodine for twice as long, to take things a bit slower/easier - which was my own idea.

Here are all 3 of my thyroid bloods this year -

Middle of iodine, Post is 2 weeks after finishing Iodine Replenishment, Today is 5 weeks after finishing Iodine Replenishment.

TSH: Middle of iodine 5.6. Post 2.35. Today 1.09 mIU/L
Range 0.27 - 4.20

FREE T4: Middle of iodine 15.9. Post 16.2. Today 17.2 pmol/L
Range 12.00 - 22.00

FREE T3: Middle of iodine 4.66. Post 4.96. Today 5.06 pmol/L
Range 3.10 - 6.80

I’ve never had rT3 measured. I’m interested in what yours comes back as.

Well done on cleaning your diet up & training

7

I’ve gotten some hormone results back from the labs and it seems iodine replenishment has not worked to raise my testosterone.

Testosterone: 12.90 nmol/L
SHBG: 22.00 nmol/L
Free Androgen Index: 58.60
Oestradol: 46.00 nmol/L

After converting the testosterone amount it’s 372 ng/dl. This is still very low. I told the nurse on the phone that at my age (25) I would expect to be much higher than this, practically double and she said that they take age into consideration with the normal range and I am considered to be in the normal range.

I’m quite disappointed with these results as this is also after several more months of working out and better diet etc to find that essentially after all these months, I’ve made no progress at all.

8

If they really took age into consideration they would see your way below average for your age, most 25 year-olds are in the 800 ranges. Age was not considered and that nurse is the definition of a moron.

9

Yeah, just the standard health industry it seems like. Soon I’m moving and will be getting a new doctor, hopefully much better than the one I have now. I’m gonna fight to get much more comprehensive bloods done and request that they refer me to an endocrinologist specialist who actually knows what they are talking about, hopefully one that looks at things holistically before going down the route of TRT. I’d rather that be a last resort to get into optimal ranges for my age.

I’m really surprised that I have made no progress. The last time I measured (slightly higher at 390 ng/dl) I had MORE body fat according to my scales (and clearly visually). My scales said 24-25% and now they are saying 19-20% (I know they are inaccurate but there is clearly a difference) and yet somehow I have slightly less/identical testosterone levels.

At this point I’m tempted to start doing a steroid cycle with PCT cause I’m not even sure how much lower than this I can get anyway. Insanely frustrating.

10

New thyroid bloods, after 4 weeks of Tyrosine. Is my thyroid working well & healthy, please?

I started using L Tyrosine at 3 grams 3 times per day for neurotransmitter (catecholamines) support having quit caffeine… and feeling very washed out & ‘grey’ in the absence of caffeine.

Tyrosine has helped a lot with my ‘blah’ mood from no caffeine. (though staying off caffeine has been quite difficult)

I’ve subsequently read that Tyrosine is one of the major building blocks of thyroid hormones, together with Iodine & selenium.

I use selenium every day + after 5 weeks of Iodine Replenishment in February 2018, I take 6mg of iodine twice per week

Here are my bloods from 2nd July & prior bloods for comparison:

‘May 2018’ is 5 weeks after finishing Iodine Replenishment.

TSH: May 2018: 1.09 mIU/L

July 2018: 1.64 mIU/L

Range 0.27 - 4.20

FREE T4: May 2018: 17.2 pmol/L

July 2018: 18.8 pmol/L

Range 12.00 - 22.00

FREE T3: May 2018: 5.06 pmol/L

July 2018: 5.46 pmol/L

Range 3.10 - 6.80

Is my thyroid function healthy on the L Tyrosine? I do need the Tyrosine for mood support/addiction support - I really don’t want to go back to the caffeine mood & energy swings.

Thanks all :muscle:t2::muscle:t2:

11

Also, like anything I seem to do, haha, I’ve changed a lot of variables at once - because a window of opportunity has come along that I wanted to seize, because I don’t get these opportunities often.

  1. So, I’ve lost 2 inches off my waist in the last month & a total of 7 pounds.

Prior to the Tyrosine my waist & weight were difficult to improve.

The Tyrosine has curbed/stopped 11pm over eating - that’s where most the damage to my body fat was being done.

Especially using mirtazapine at 10pm. That drug would kick in with mega munchies & by 11pm I was eating 1,200 calories right before sleep.

  1. I stopped the 2 antidepressants I’m prescribed - venlafaxine & mirtazapine. I stopped both those 10 days ago after a very rapid 4 day taper.

I’d been pretty fed up of taking those 2 drugs for ages & all their side effects. I have tried slowwww tapers off them previously

^ After 2 days of zero of the antidepressants, I slowly introduced 5-HTP & Tryptophan to minimise withdrawal off the antidepressants & for natural mood support.

That’s really worked. I’d say the antidepressant withdrawal was very moderate relative to much worse past experience without amino support.

My waist size has rapidly improved since stopping the antidepressants.

My libido & sex function has dramatically!! improved since stopping the antidepressants - it’s like I’m taking Viagra every day - and I’m not!!

Morning wood, 3am wood, sex twice per day. My dick has not worked this well since I was 14 haha

12

Bumpings. Wondering if I’m going a bit hyperthyroid with these numbers. @physioLojik please too :muscle:t2:

13

@mrmeeseeks I like your numbers where they are right now. Plus you feel great and your body is changing! Good work man

14

Ah cool, thanks for your feedback dude :muscle:t2::muscle:t2: