Hi Chris, these tests are not a full thyroid panel. Since if, as you say, you’re having thyroid symptoms, it’s very important to get a full thyroid panel. These two tests are not enough information to tell us what we need to know.
Here’s the thing, thyroid ranges are very broad. So it is typical that thyroid patients spend years or even decades with “subclinical” thyroid disease because their numbers don’t show as out of range.
Just as an example, when my TSH shows above 2, I have horrible hypothyroid symptoms. This is well within normal ranges, but for me. I can barely function.
The standard medication protocols are designed for people with elevated TSH. So it’s possible to have advanced thyroid disease without out of range TSH, which makes treatment rather difficult. I suspect the TSH levels may spike clinically at the early stages of thyroid disease, but likely go back to normal as thyroid disease advances. This is why people with no thyroid symptoms can be diagnosed by high TSH in the early stages of thyroid disease. Their TSH spikes and their thyroid is functioning enough to respond, so they have no symptoms. Once advanced, the pituitary has been pumping out massive signals (TSH) to tell the thyroid gland to produce more thyroxin, but it isn’t working, so the pituitary gives up and finds a new homeostasis it can function at- a slightly elevated, but within normal range TSH production. So people spend years being sick, unable to get a diagnosis, feeling like they’re crazy because they have all the hypothyroid symptoms, which are getting worse, but no reflective blood tests.
The idea is that the TSH should tell us what your pituitary thinks your thyroid gland is doing, but TSH doesn’t always give a proper picture of your whole thyroid system. Hence, a full thyroid panel.
What blood tests are you having done next week?
You’ll need to get copies of your blood tests each time. This way, you’ll be able to see the ranges that are used. There is some controversy about ranges, as they are often set by the contracting lab that analyzes the blood work. For certain things, there are universally set medical standards- like for diabetes testing. For most other blood tests, ranges are quite broad because the ranges are determined from a compilation and statistical analysis of all the patients tested over an entire year. Thyroid patients get their blood levels tested frequently and are often out of whack, while people getting tested during their annual physical are far fewer. So you can see how this could skew ranges to be broader- basically testing more sick people than well.
This is another reason people come on this site. They ask other people what ranges correspond with symptoms and find out what is realistic and what isn’t.
There are thousands of thyroid posts here. Take some time and read through them to get a sense of other peoples’ struggles and what works and what doesn’t. You’ll realize you aren’t alone, your symptoms are real and many other people have encountered the exact same challenges you’re dealing with now. You’ll get a lot of guidance on how to deal with your condition.