I was just looking through my old blood tests in preparation for my yearly “complete diabetes workup” at my local hospital, and noticed my TSH results throughout the years were looking odd. My endo hasn’t said anything about it, but I can’t help feel like I’m on my way to develop Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis at some point in the future…
The text is in Danish, but I think it should be understandable even if you can’t read Danish. It’s a thyrotropin measurement in plasma.
The first and lowest test was in 2018, next in 2019, then 2020, 2022 and 2024.
What are your thoughts? Anyone have a similar experience
[Edit]: I forgot to say my family is rife with autoimmune disorders, which includes autoimmune thyroid issues.
That is the hormone TSH. There is a feedback loop with thyroid function. Thyroxine or T4 is the hormone that regulates your metabolism. Free t4 is the unbound type. But TSH is the hormone that stimulates your thyroid to make more T4 so if TSH is increasing, it means you have a thyroid that is underproducing and TSH is a way to stimulate it to make more. If TSH is getting less, it means your thyroid is over producing and your body wants to not stimulate T4 production.
It’s actually a complicated feedback look and I’m over simplifying it. But hopefully you get the basic issue of gradual increases to TSH means your thyroid is delivering less and less T4
This is a concerning trend for sure but you are still with the 4.5 threshold, and the truth is, there is nothing that can prevent it from getting worse.
If it continues, you should need to take thyroxine supplements at some point but not anytime soon going by the progression on your chart.
You can ask your doctor for a full thyroid panel though because it can lay out the specific issue in the hormone chain.
If you have a family history of thyroid insufficiency, then it’s likely the very early indication, but I suspect it will be years before meds are needed.
Btw I’m not a doctor, but I’m a clinical scientist so I can tell you what appears to be happening but I can’t diagnose you nor would I even if I was a doctor.
I definitely have hypothyroidism because of Hashimoto’s. My endo regularly test thyroid function as well as Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO). TPO tests for the antibodies.
I Agee with @Timothy but since you live in a Nordic country you may be soon experiencing one of the symptoms of hypothyroidism, cold intolerance. That was my first. I would be very uncomfortable just walking past open top freezer cases in the supermarket.
Oh and T1DM s tend to be more susceptible to other autoimmune diseases. Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO)
Thank you for the thorough explanation. Reducing thyroid function was my worry. It would be one thing if the graph had ups and downs, but it’s just going up, which seemed odd to me.
I’m only 35 years old, I don’t already want another autoimmune disease to deal with, lol…
My mom’s sister had Graves’ disease (and a few other family members), but no one has Hashimoto’s that I know of, which I assume this will eventually develop into.
I have actually been incredibly cold this winter, especially after I’ve been sleeping, even if it’s just a short nap. I’ve kept my apartment temperature at 25C (77F) the entire winter. I normally keep the temperature at around 20C to 21C (68F to 70F).
I don’t know what my TSH is currently, and my last test was 22nd February 2024. I had to cancel my last yearly checkup that was supposed to happen last week because I was sick, and since it’s a 3 hour full body checkup, the wait time for a new appointment can take a couple of weeks to a month.
I’ll definitely ask my doctor to do a TPO test, as well as a full thyroid panel.
Hashimoto’s disease is an auto-immune disease, where antibodies attack the thyroid and islet cells, usually after a viral infection. However, it is more likely that you could be losing thyroid function. As noted, you are still below the threshold for deficiency level. Women, more so then men, lose thyroid function as they age.
Not a Dr., but a pre-clinical scientist. I had Hashimoto’s disease when I was 12, and became diabetic - now 72 yo. I was on thyroid medication for a few years, but then thyroid function became normal. Since then, I have had some variation in TSH levels over the years, but not to the level of needing clinical intervention.
But yes, you should discuss it with your doc so it is in the clinical notes.
