Your doctors states thyroid levels normal, but the reference ranges your doctor uses to determine normal status are not normal, this is a problem because most doctors are using dated ranges. A normal TSH is <1.5 which is where 95% of the population scores, the normal free thyroid hormones Free T3 normal ranges are still under debate.
Reference ranges for TSH and thyroid hormones
Though TSH remains the most commonly used endocrine test in clinical practice, the issue of an appropriate TSH, and to a lesser extent, free T4 and free T3 reference ranges is still under debate. First of all the distribution of TSH reference range is not normal, with median values (also depending on population iodine intake) usually between 1-1.5 mU/L.
There is the problem, your doctor was taught what normal is in medical school, now new information is out and now we know normal is something very different, that the normal ranges are NOT normal.
Your doctor is using reference ranges that included sick people with hypothyroidism. All day every day people search the internet because something isn’t right, they are told by their doctor that their hormone levels are normal and that any problems are in your head.
The evidence for a narrower thyrotropin reference range
Debate and controversy currently surround the recommendations of a recent consensus conference that considered issues related to the management of early, mild, or so-called subclinical hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Intimately related to the controversy is the definition of the normal reference range for TSH.
It has become clear that previously accepted reference ranges are no longer valid as a result of both the development of more highly sensitive TSH assays and the appreciation that reference populations previously considered normal were contaminated with individuals with various degrees of thyroid dysfunction that served to increase mean TSH levels for the group.
Recent laboratory guidelines from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry indicate that more than 95% of normal individuals have TSH levels below 2.5 mU/liter. The remainder with higher values are outliers, most of whom are likely to have underlying Hashimoto thyroiditis.
The optimal ranges for Free T is 20-26 pg/mL, this is the optimal range for men under 30 years old and is where all the really good hormone specialists are seeing their patient feel optimal and all other biomarkers optimal as well.
