rcs wrote:
You proved my point.
An athlete who is tired with TSH 3.5 isn't hypothyroid, and doesn't need to be treated down to 1.0. They're tired, and need to train/recover within their abilities.
Treating these healthy runners for "a diagnosis" they don't really have is like "diagnosing" a sprinter with "low testerosterone" and prescribing anabolics because they can't recover from lifting 4x per week. It's cheating.
You've missed my point.
Hypothyroidism should never be diagnosed by just TSH value, it should be used primarily as indicator there is an issue and to monitor dosage needs. If initial test results show high or borderline TSH they will usually test for free T3, T4, thyroid antibodies and consider symptoms of which there are a lot more than just tiredness. TSH only gives you a small part of the picture so to say someone, athlete or not, isn't hypothyroid based on one value is ill-founded.
Having said that I do think that it can and is being abused, but the amount of inaccurate information on the subject does nothing to help.