Exact same situation here. I refused to have the entire thyroid removed. Even as a "half," the gland does still work!! I had half removed 6 years ago. At first, a Fellow MD told me that I could choose whether to start hormone replacement therapy (the meds) right after surgery or later. But right after surgery, I was told I should start therapy. I work in a medical research field; I knew that the half-T could produce hormones. In fact, the same Fellow MD told me that it MAY "step up" and increase its production after the body realizes that the hormone levels had dropped (after surgery). So I said I wanted to wait to see what the body did with the lower hormone levels. I think we waited a month or 6 weeks or so, then I had a blood draw. My little half-T did it!!! Hormone levels were normal! NO THYROID MEDS FOR ME AT ALL, EVER. The staff Endocrine MD (the Fellow's boss) told me he'd never had someone choose to wait and see what the half-T would do. This was a learning for him. He now would tell other patients they could retest the hormones in a few weeks before starting meds. This was my experience. It's good to know we have a choice to delay the meds a bit.