How much tyroxine/ antidepressants and menopause

[marditart]

my gp dosent aggree with dr skinner's doseage of 225mg they say 75mg is sufficient and with a correct blood test reading !! with 100mg of sertraline for the menopause I feel rubbish putting weight on, cold, and very tired even after 9 hours sleep. I did feel better on higher dose but do I listen to Dr Skinner or my GP ? Also I carnt afford to keep paying private to see Dr Skinner and getting private perscriptions ! Help any advice out there ?? Thanks in anticipation of some advice. xx

[Issy]

I regained my health by listening to Dr Skinner.

[marditart in reply to Issy]

yes I did originally ,then decided to do as gp advised and cut dose ! Just how wrong was I !? Dr Skinner here I Come !! many thanks Issy. x.

[Hidden]

Hello,

You have to do whatever makes you feel best. Many of us have had to go the private route even though we can ill afford it. My feeling is that without your health you have nothing, and I've had to borrow money on my house to fund my daughter's recovery. If Dr. Skinner's way is the best way for you then his advice is the best advice to follow.

Jane x

[marditart in reply to Hidden]

Know your right janeb ! thank you.

[Marz]

...I agree with both the above......what price health ? Have a look around you to see what you could forgo - maybe not for ever but just whilst you discover your health. Last December I had my last hair colour done - a saving of over 500 euro a year ! It's all a journey ! x

[marditart in reply to Marz]

Thank you.

[shaws Administrator]

This is how Dr Skinner became involved with thyroid gland problems. Being a Virologist and after the 'new' thyroid gland blood tests came in because GP's/Endos were following the new protocol they could not understand why patients were having 'NEW' diseases so sent them to Dr S. They were going only by the TSH - which in fact doesn't always correlate with thyroid gland problem. As well, they were/are still prescribing too low a dose to make patients well.

web.archive.org/web/2010122...

[marditart in reply to shaws]

Thank you for your comments.

[Hidden]

Not all things in life are so straightforward, but there are only easy choices here.

1.Listen to you GP, and suffer, or

2. Listen to Dr Skinner, pay your money and hopefully get well, he is one of few who has a reputation for that, or

3. Self treat (perhaps based on his initial advice), although even that costs money for drugs and testing but seeing you have to ask this question, that option does not inmpoy to me that it is viable for you, so it leaves you having to go back to options 1. or 2 again.

Like I said very straightforward, but I bet not the answer you wanted!

Seeing a private doctor for anything that is a chronic long term condition requiring life-long medication that you can't afford isn't much use starting and wasting your money on unless you have your NHS GP on-board who will prescribe based on that Doctor's recommendation. I am very much in that position with a couple of issues too - Mine does prescribe drugs (which would cost far more than I could afford) based on my private Andrologist's advice, and is generally very co-operative in almost all things, and he is even not as narrow minded as some on thyroid issues, but he will not refer me to Dr Skinner as so many other GPs will not, because of the reputation that he has among Endocrinologists, therefore that hasn't been an option for me so I self treat thyroid, or suffer, and that's not been without a lot of soul searching and even more research, which is vitally important as it is NOT something to do lightly.

Additionally, (and having taken it, and several others I have experienced how nasty it is), Sertraline will do nothing specific for menopausal symptoms or anything else of a hormonal nature, it's a plain straightforward antidepressant, an SSRI used for treating depression, the stock answer from many GPs for every ill known to man - and it comes with a lot of side effects too. Getting thyroid issues sorted *could* (I emphasise could) well do more for depression than any antidepressant, it's not guaranteed, but it certainly has for mine, although the source of the depression (severe chronic pain) will never go away, so I always have some degree of depression.

Some info here on thyroid and mental health: stopthethyroidmadness.com/t...

[marditart in reply to Hidden]

Thanks picton for all your views and advice much appreciated.

[Heloise]

I am in the U.S. and have order Erfa or Armour from Canada, The Universal Drugstore. I don't know what kind of import or vat tax they might add in the UK but for a 100 one-grain tablets they charged $28 plus shipping. I've always paid for it myself and often got a six month supply or 200 tablets (taking one grain per day). I'm sure thyroxine is cheaper yet. So if you could get your original prescription or at least the additional dose, would it be possible to do this on your own? I would look for places outside the UK and see if you can afford to do this.

[marditart in reply to Heloise]

thank you for advice heloise. x