Diagnosed With Enlarged Fatty Liver And Pcos. Found Elevated Tsh Level. Prescribed Thyronorm

Posted on Sat, 11 May 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 11 May 2013 Answered on

Tue, 28 May 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My TSH is elevated to 5.61 ulU/ml but normal T4 8.40 ug/di and T3 1.19 ng/ml.Dr has prescribed me medicine for hypothyroidism (thyronorm 12.5mcg).I am a bit skeptical whether to take this medicine. I am also diagnosed with polycystic ovary and enlarged fatty liver.

Answered by Dr. Om Lakhani (59 minutes later)

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for your question on XXXXXXX What you have is subclinical hypothyroidism that is elevated TSH with normal T3 and T4. What we need to do is do a lipid profile and Anti-TPO antibody.

If your Anti-TPO is positive then is is suggestive of Autoimmune thyroiditis in which your thyroid cells are destroyed by your own body. In such a case we would start on Thyroxine as your thyroid cells are going to go down eventually and we can keep your thyroid levels under control before your levels go down and cause harm.

If your lipid profile shows high cholesterol then we can add thyroid because this will also help to keep your cholesterol under control.

If you cholesterol is normal and Anti TPO is negative then you dont need to take thyroxine.

Hope this is helpful. If you have any more question please feel free to contact me.

Regards
Dr. Om Lakhani, MD
Member of American academy of Clinical Endocrinologists.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar