Managing Hypothyroidism Symptoms: Feeling Tired and Depressed

@Share TSH tells the thyroid how much to make. The thyroid uses this to determine how much T4 and T3 to make. T4 is like a transporter. It doesn't actually do anything. When T4 gets to a cell the cell converts it to T3. T3 is what actually does the work. There is some T3 in your blood but it's mostly T4. So basically it's TSH ->thyroid->T4 in blood-> T3 in cells. Since there are many steps between TSH and T3 (the active hormone), TSH does not give a full picture. There can be a problem at any one of these steps (for me it was T4 not converting to T3 so my TSH was normal). Your doctor should at minimum test your TSH and T4. Ideally even have your T3 tested. I had to request it specifically.

@Share T4 is the free floating thyroid hormone & TSH is the hormone stimulates making it. I can’t explain what the differences in all the numbers mean, just that my TSH has always been completely in the normal range but my T4 runs low meaning I don’t have much thyroid hormone circulating. I would definitely ask for a T4 test too.