Like how many times would one need to take a basic thyroid test before they are finally diagnosed?

Sounds like Hashi's cycling...............

You need testing for thyroid ANTIBODIES as well as TSH. TSH ‘norm’ should be .3 – 3 (w/ most feeling best at < 2) but, for diagnosis, may not mean much if ANTIBODIES are present which is indicative of Hashimoto’s Autoimmune Thyroiditis (cycles between HYPER & HYPO at start)…it is the main cause of eventual HypOthyroidism but worse (...OR Graves Disease – HypERthyroid from beginning).

WARNING: Doctors seem not to want to find/treat thyroid disease. You may have to go to more than one doctor before you get the right tests, interpretation, and treatment. Best wishes.

Ck these:

http://thyroid.about.com/bio/Mary-Shomon-350.htm

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

http://www.thyrophoenix.com/index.html

http://thyroid.about.com/cs/newsinfo/l/blguideline...

ALWAYS GET COPIES OF YOUR LABS.

God bless you

Your doctor ordered the tests because your results are so different from one test to another, and he is trying to make sure that you don't have some other problem that would affect your numbers, like an autoimmune disease, or a tumor. Oddly enough, sometimes the thyroid is a symptom of another disease. Once you treat the disease, the thyroid returns to normal on its own, without any other treatment.

It can sometimes take several testings to show an abnormal thyroid level. Just be persistent about this and go back at least once a month to have another test done until the thyroid abnormality shows itself on a test. The Doctors know that it often takes several tests for it to show up, so they are not going to get annoyed by your coming back several times for the test to be retaken.