What is Reverse T3 (RT3)?
>> 7/15/10
Your thyroid makes T1, T2, T3 and T4. T4 is supposed to convert into T3 (the active thyroid hormone) but may instead convert to RT3 due to stress, low ferritin, cortisol, etc. This RT3 blocks the receptors and doesn't allow the T3 to get in and do its job, giving you hypothyroid symptoms.
I have a Reverse T3 problem. I was diagnosed 8-1/2 years after being unsuccessfully treated for hypothyroidism by several other doctors. Not one of them ever did a RT3 blood test! My new doctor did this. My other doctors treated according to labs - the TSH was within normal range so I must be normal...not. I had swiss cheese memory, hair falling out, weight gain (boy those apidexin reviews and other diet pill reviews were starting to look good), irritable, bad skin, hard time conceiving, etc. I'd tell my doctors this and they'd dismiss me because my TSH was within normal range. I sure did learn to hate that TSH test!
2 comments:
Hi, I can completely relate to your struggle. I have had fatigue, no hair growth, trouble sleeping, and 20 lbs of weight gain despite strict dieting, running 3-5 miles everyday and sports! I am doing everything to get it off, but cannot. My labs show my ft3: 2.3 (2.0-4.), and my rt3 at 413 (50-350)! I have been to so many docs and wasted so much money trying to get on cytomel, but no one will prescribe it because they don't believe in rt3 dominance and say my tsh,t4,and t3 are fine. Can you please tell me how you found your doc? I have actually been laughed at for bringing my labs and all of my information to my appointments... by an endo! Thank you!!
Hi Sarah,
I found my doc by a forum member recommendation on the Natural Thyroid Hormones forum (Yahoo). There is also a "good docs" list in this yahoo forum (see "My Thyroid Support & Links" in the right column). I believe it is the Natural Thyroid Hormones forum link. You'll find doctors listed in a file there that are known for their thyroid treatments from people who have successfully had theirs treated. What you can also do is go to your local pharmacy and talk to the pharmacist. Ask him/her which doctors in the area prescribes Cytomel. They'd be filling the prescriptions so they'd know.
What I found in the past decade is that Endocrinologists are totally useless for good thyroid treatment (not just lab numbers but symptoms). Completely. Useless. I was never a person to any of my Endocrinologists. I was a lab. That'd been fine if they'd been willing to run the right labs, lol.
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