How to Get a Complete Thyroid Panel
Warning: You’re doc may not have requested a complete thyroid panel for you! So many of us just know all the symptoms are there, and are convinced the thyroid isn’t working well-despite the lab test results… What do you do now?
What are symptoms of thyroid dysfunction?
If you experience any of these symptoms then I encourage you to get deeper into lab testing to find the root cause, which may be thyroid related:
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Abnormal Fatigue
- Brain fog
- Depression
- Dry Skin/ Skin changes
- Weight gain
- Diabetes
- Hair Loss/ Hair Changes
- Heart disease
- High cholesterol
- Peripheral neuropathy (numbness in hands/feet/legs/arms)
- Goiter (which may inhibit your ability to swallow or breathe)
- Infertility and birth defects in your children
Complete Thyroid Test Panel
Many healthcare practitioners miss seeing the full thyroid picture due to the lack of comprehensive testing. You can ask your doctor for a requisition form to get the below tests completed, but don’t feel defeated if they are resistant and say no just because the minimal few markers came back “normal”. The good news is, you can order labs yourself.
This below comprehensive thyroid panel gives deeper insights to the complexity of thyroid dysfunction. Since your thyroid situation is personal to you, this information can help you and your practitioner develop a tailored treatment plan that works.
What’s Should Be Tested:
- TSH
- Total T4
- Total T3
- Free T4
- Free T3
- Reverse T3 (rT3)
- T3U
- Free T4 Index
- TPO and Anti-TG Antibodies (Hashimoto’s Screen)
