My Support Forums - View Single Post - Has anyone gone through recovering from iron deficiency?

janiedough · Feb 24, 2016, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htoun

Yeah being low in B12 could do it too. If you have had problems with B I would look at that first

Did the dr check your thyroid levels or your TSH. If it was just a TSH test you still could be having thyroid problems. The TSH is actually the chemical your pituitary gland sends to your thyroid to tell it to make thyroxan. Your thyroid actually makes 5 chemicals. T3 and T4 seem to be the most important from my research. Your thyroid makes both but you can also convert T4 to T3 unless you are having any number of problems like low minerals, gut problems even some meds can effect it. I'm still trying to get a handle on it and I have been on thyroid meds for almost 20 years and complaining there was something wrong for 20 before that. Anyway TSH has been considered the gold standard test for a long time but there is a movement to doing the free T3 and T4. Took me a while to get my dr to do it then to get him to disregard the TSH. The free T3 and T4 is a better test for thyroid as it is actually the stuff your thyroid makes. Sorry that was so long but it's a pet peeve I have felt horrid for years and they would say your thyroid is fine the TSH is in normal and then to find they lied

So if you still feel like blah keep checking and going back. Ok will jump off the

now.

Sorry, my response is a bit long.

Thanks for the information.

It sucks that you had to go through all that with the thyroid stuff.

Hopefully it doesn't take 20 years to figure out my problem; It's been 2 years for mine so far and I'm still in my twenties, so it's kind of difficult to get people to take me seriously (I've been told that I act like an old grandma by some who know me better). (I think there is a delicate balance of passiveness, assertiveness, and how much concern you show when talking to doctors; I initially tried attacking this problem passively with doctors and got told I had an "anxiety" disorder and the doctor wouldn't do any blood tests other than A1C... So, this time, I am being more assertive and laid back in my approach, as in I am only mentioning a few symptoms at a time that I have prioritized along with using logical arguments to rationalize testing to be done, and it's working out better. Yay!)

I just checked and it looks like tests for "T4, FREE" and "TSH" were done. My B12 was checked at the same time, and it was almost 1000 pg/ml which is pretty good I think. I had been self supplementing with B12 for about 2 months up until 1 week before the test was done. It has been roughly almost 3 months since the blood was taken for those tests. I also take a daily multivitamin that has B12 (I have been taking a daily multivitamin for the past 5 or 6 months). So, given that, I cannot be certain about whether I have actually had a problem with B vitamins or not. Ideally, I would just get those checked to compare with last time. I don't want to start self supplementing before getting a blood test again out of fear that if I do, I will never know if low B12 is really part of the problem. It is tempting though! I will be patient.