Hypothyroidism

Hi Folks,
I got bloodwork done of my thyroid and my TSH value is a 9.5 same as it was 3 months ago and my doctor said if it hasn't improved, ill need to go on Synthroid. My t3, t4, reverse t3, and thyroid antibodies are all well within range. Over the past 2 years, my tsh has been slowly increasing from 2 to now 9.5. With that my anxiety was getting higher and higher too to the point where it is debilitating me now. Could the hypothyroid be the answer to my horrific anxiety ? Will taking Synthroid help with any of my symptoms and will it help clear the lyme and bart out faster because progress hasn't been as fast as I like it. I know thyroid is critical for immune support so thats what I was getting at. Thanks everyone

The range given from labcorp is .45 to 4.5. Mine is at 9.5. Ive heard that anything over 2.5 is bad even though the range is 4.5.

yep - all normal healthy people have tsh below 2.5 - its only because our population is getting sicker as a whole that they raised the limit to 4.5.

raising TSH over time is a common sign of auto-immune related thyroid illness - or potentially some form of growth in the pineal gland that makes the TSH ( though that is comparatively very rare )

mine gradually crept up to 11-5ish before getting diagnosed only due to investigations for lyme driven symptoms - it is common for thyroid issues to occur in lyme patients - and all intracellular bacterial infections are associated with triggering auto-immune thyroid disease - eg hashimoto's thyroiditis ( the most common)

just a little odd that you say your antibodies are within normal range - you may want to post the actual numbers and limits .
i have read its possible to have auto-immune type thyroiditis ( inflammation and destruction of the thyroid gland by the immune system resulting in inadequate supply of thyroid hormones and hypothyroid state ) without either of the typical two anti-thyroid antibodies being present.
i believe there are other antibodies that specialists labs can test for that are present in a number of people who have thyroiditis but do not test positive for the usual 2 antibodies. this may be worth investigating as it is still the most likely explanation for your raised Tsh

another explanation that we come across in thyroid circles is that the thyroid damage actually releases T3 and T4 as it destroys cells in the thyroid tissue and this can sometimes compensate to some degree in teh test results at a snapshot in time - so they look like normal levels / or just random levels - this would be less likely to be a fitting explanation if every test is the same over time - as more fluctuation would be expected

i do not think TSH is directly linked to anxiety more likely the underlying inflammation / auto-immune disease that is driving the thyroid damage is also driving brain inflammation or other hormonal imbalances and overall ill health, that then drive anxiety.

do you have lyme disease - if so coinfections bartonella and mycoplasma are both linked to both anxiety and auto-immune disease

Synthroid did not help my overall symptoms - i think combination therapy with T3 and T4 did - but took some time to get blood levels into the desired range

Yes. Hypo can create anxiety. 25 yrs experience with it.

Mt free t3 was 3.5 in the range of 2 - 4.4. My free t4 was 1.13 in the range of .82 - 1.77. My reverse t3 was 13.4 in the range of 9.2-24.1. Astroman, how long after taking Synthroid did you feel improvements and when did your hypothyroid symptoms start going away especially the anxiety. I read it takes 6 weeks but I wanted to hear your experience.