You are definitely hypothyroid and it appears that you are severely undertreated. 15 mg is not going to make a great difference i don't think. It is fine to go slow like that but you need to probably be increasing that every few weeks. You need to be getting new labs about 6 weeks after you reach a level where you feel better. Actually, the conservative approach would be to make a small change and then retest in 6 weeks, then make another small change, etc. Here is a site that will help you learn the basics about what test results mean. There is lots of other info there too as well as a forum. I really like THIS forum for getting answers to difficult questions but About.com already has a wealth of info available that is very helpful when tryin g to learn the basics. You must become very knowledgable or else the doctors are likely going to leave you undertreated. http://thyroid.about.com/cs/testsforthyroid/ Basically, the TSH is a hormone that comes from the pituitary in response to low thyroid hormone levles. It is a messenger hormone, telling the thyroid it needs to produce more hormone. The free T4 is the actual thyroid hormone in your blood and your level is too low which is why the pituitary is telling the thyroid to produce more. The pituitary has no way of knowing what the thyroids capabilities are. In your case, Hashimoto's is destroying your thyroid gland so that it no longer can produce normal amounts of thyroid hormone, no matter how loudly the pituitary screams for it! With Armour, you would expect the T4 and T3 levels to rise. Ideally, you probably want both to be in their upper ranges. Sometimes, with Armour, the T3 will be higher than the T4. Some people eventually add some T4 drug to their Armour to balance out those levels. Others feel fine on Armour alone. In your case, you appear to still be so deficient, that just raising the armour dose alone will probably help but I suspect you need quite a bit more. I personally feel best on 150-180 mg. Some people on this list take quite a bit more. Before going to the next doctor, I'd call and ask the office staff if she prescribes Armour. Many doctors think the synthetics like Synthroid or Levoxyl are superior but patients seem to report just the opposite. I would not specifically look for an endocronologist unless you can find one that will prescribe Armour. The endocrinologists tend to be more conservative, use synthetics only and believe that symptoms are unimportant as long as the labs look "normal". I should not generalize but this opinion is expressed b y many others as well. that is not to say that there are not a few good ones out there. Unfortunately, too many people go to the bad ones and then accept that they have to feel ill the rest of their lives because the endocrinologist convinces them that the problem could not possibly be their thyroid. I think most of us have difficulty learning the rules of this listserve initially so don't fell alone. Search the archives here. Also, on the About.com site, there is a section called TopDocs where you can look for doctors near you that others have recommended. Sometimes, though, there is no one close by who is knowledgeable enough about the intricacies of thryoid. For that reason, I travel from VA to Indiana to see Doc Don who frequently posts on this list. I also have a husband and 3 children with thyroid problems so it was alot easier to travel than to keep trying to get their problems recognized locally. Good luck. You can feel lots better than you do today. Even when you get to a better dose, though, it takes months sometimes for the body to heal. the damage didn't happen overnight and it doesn't go away overnite although I felt better soon after beginning treatment. You obviously need a much higher dose. It may be worthwhile to persist with your current doctor who at least prescribes Armour. Sounds like you need to educate him some. That is what many of us have had to do. Nancy ________________________________________________________________ Thyroid messages contain only the opinions of their authors. Opinions expressed on Thyroid do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management, publisher, or our advertisers. Change your own account here http://www.Emissary.Net/Thyroid/index.html If a question isn't answered on Thyroid, check the Thyroid Archives: <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/thyroid.html> and ask again! ________________________________________________________________