Low TSH, Low T4, but even lower T3
Find a Conversation
| Mon, 09-24-2007 - 5:52pm |
I wrote a year ago on the pediatric board about my daughter's low thyroid. Maybe someone here can talk to me - a worried mother????
My daughter has hypothalmic-pituitary axis hypothyroidism (that means her thyroid gland itself is fine - but the hypothalamus is not telling the Pituitary to crank out enough TSH.)
She still has not been fixed. It has been over 3 years since they finally found the problem (ie finally tested the right hormones). The Pituitary specialist she was supposed to go to was not a pituitary specialist, but a thyroid specialist, and she blew my daughter off saying she just gets people started on thyroid hormones then leaves it to the GP to continue from there. Of course, it was her GP that SENT her to that doctor because he cannot keep her levels up.
First they tried Levoxyl. Each time we thought her T3/T4 level was good her TSH would drop even more, then her T3/T4 would drop again.
So they tried sublingual Synthroid. Same thing. :-(
Her GP was noticing that her T3 is so much lower, so he's about to start her on T3/T4 combination via "Armour". It sounds disgusting because it is made from PIG thyroid gland!!!
I am just so discouraged. She is even more discouraged than I am!!!
I cannot find anything written about not being able to keep the thyroid levels up...
And WHY would she not be converting enough T4 to T3 even when her T4 is at least low normal???
Our local University Hospital is AWFUL!!! Someone suggested I take her to "Cleveland Clinic". Her GP wants to keep trying other things, like this Armour. In the meantime, her life continues... she is almost 20 years old now and her first symptoms of low thyroid started OVER A DECADE AGO!!!! They even blamed her depression, pain, hard stool, cognitive decline and fatigue on all being "mental". Yeah. Right. Along with her dry brittle thin hair, cracked dry skin, and osteoporosis.


Hi Naomi,
That is discouraging when you can't get answers or positive results from the treatments or meds your daughter is taking.
Armour Thyroid: Thought I would give an update as requested.
It has just been 3 months. Levels are LOW normal. T3 still lower than T4.
The doctor says that could be due to her low Cortisol level. Low Cortisol inhibits the conversion of T4 to T3.... and of course, T3 is what the body uses. So the object now is to increase her Cortisol level. He wants to first try shoring up her adrenals with