[ssMarilyn]

Please read this...I put this in another thread as well, but you might miss that one. Females want their TSH to be as close to 1.0 as possible and NEVER over 3.0 Read on....

According to the American
Association of Clinical
Endocrinologists (AACE), what
was normal last year,
thyroid-wise, may now be abnormal.
According to the AACE, doctors have typically been
basing their diagnoses on the "normal" range for the TSH
test. The typical normal levels at most laboratories has
fallen in the 0.5 to 5.0 range.
The new guidelines narrow the range for acceptable
thyroid function, and the AACE is now encouraging
doctors to consider thyroid treatment for patients who
test the target TSH level of 0.3 to 3.04, a far narrower
range. AACE believes the new range will result in proper
diagnosis for millions of Americans who suffer from a mild
thyroid disorder, but have gone untreated until now.

The new target TSH level
according to AACE is now 0.3
to 3.04

At a press conference, Hossein Gharib, MD, FACE, and
president of AACE, said: "This means that there are
more people with minor thyroid abnormalities than
previously perceived."
AACE estimates that the new guidelines actually double
the number of people who have abnormal thyroid
function, bringing the total to as many as 27 million, up
from 13 million thought to have the condition under the
old guidelines. These new estimates would make thyroid
disease the most common endocrine disorder in North
America, far outpacing diabetes.

As many as 27 million people
have thyroid problems under
the new guidelines

AACE made the decision to narrow the range because of
data suggesting many people may have low-level thyroid
problems that could be improved with treatment and a
narrower TSH range will give doctors reason to more
carefully consider those patients.
"The prevalence of undiagnosed thyroid disease in the
United States is shockingly high - particularly since it is
a condition that is easy to diagnose and treat," said Dr.
Gharib. "The new TSH range from the AACE guidelines
gives physicians the information they need to diagnose
mild thyroid disease before it can lead to more serious
effects on a patient's health - such as elevated
cholesterol, heart disease, osteoporosis, infertility, and
depression."
Commentary from Mary Shomon
This announcement from AACE represents a
long-overdue and much-needed improvement in the level
of awareness of endocrinologists. After decades of
denying that patients within the normal range of TSH
could in fact have a thyroid condition, they are now
finally acknowledging what patients and advocates have
been saying quite vocally for years: that the high and
low end of the normal range is not, in fact, normal for
most people.
It is, however, also clear that the endocrinology
community has a long way to go in terms of true
understanding of the patient condition, when you read
the words of Dr. Gharib, an endocrinologist and president
of AACE. Dr. Gharib parrots the official endocrinologist
party line when he states that thyroid disease, "is a
condition that is easy to diagnose and treat."
Dr. Gharib's pronouncement contradicts the AACE's own
statement on many levels.
First, many family doctors, general practitioners and
even endocrinologists have absolutely no idea about
these new guidelines from the AACE, and as of this
week, are still routinely denying diagnosis and treatment
to patients who have TSH levels that fall in the level
between 3.0 and 6.0, or between .1 and .3. So, until
the word it out, and accepted, thyroid disease
continues to be a condition that is not easy to
diagnose.
Second, until this announcement, people who had clear
symptoms of thyroid disease, but were in the .1 to .3, or
3 to 6 range on the TSH scale were considered
"euthyroid" (normal) by almost all endocrinologists and
practitioners. They were not diagnosed as having a
thyroid condition, and a total lack of diagnosis cannot
be in any way said to be easy, particularly for the
unfortunate patients on the receiving end of such
sub-standard care. People who had family histories of
thyroid disease, symptoms (including enlarged thyroid,
goiter, nodules, etc.) but whose TSH tests were in the
low or high end of normal were routinely denied
treatment, and sent away with no diagnosis and no
treatment. This narrow-minded means of diagnosis has
been the "standard of care" for conventional doctors
and endocrinologists for decades, based on a near-
slavish reliance on the TSH test -- often to the
exclusion of clinical evidence, symptoms and medical
observation.
Third, and equally of concern, many people with
symptoms, whose TSH levels fell into the high or
low-normal, were told that their problems were actually
the result of depression, and given antidepressants. This
means that a percentage of the population was
misdiagnosed, sometimes stigmatized by the diagnosis of
mental illness, and unnecessarily given drugs.