Posts by Brian Cox5

Thanks a ton to both of you for the explanations; things are looking a lot clearer now. 🙂

mellowraven32 said:It’s not a mistake.
TSH is the pituitary hormone that basically "orders" the thyroid on how much of its own hormones to pump out. If the thyroid is acting up and ignoring the pituitary—meaning it's overproducing hormones (T3, T4)—the pituitary uses a feedback loop to dial back TSH production because it "sees" there's already too much thyroid hormone in the system.
Keep in mind, you can't diagnose someone with hypo- or hyperthyroidism based on TSH alone; you need to look at the actual thyroid hormones too.

Thanks so much for clearing that up. 🙂
I have a few more questions about the thyroid. If TSH is high but T3 and T4 are normal, or if only T3 is high or only T4 is high while TSH stays normal, what's actually happening there? Every time I get my bloodwork done, something is always out of range. What does hyperthyroidism actually look like on lab results? And also, what’s the deal with the difference between fT3 vs T3 and fT4 vs T4?

My TSH is sitting at 0.418 (normal range is 0.470-4.640), while my mom’s is over 6. They told me I have hyperthyroidism and she has hypothyroidism. Does this sound like a mistake? By my logic, if the number is above the reference range, it's hypo, and if it's below, it's hyper. 🤷