Is 60 mcg T3 the maximum that can be prescribed?

[lolajone]

I'm on a T3 only trial taking 60mcg/day split into 3 doses. Feeling a lot better but memory terrible, doing some really ditzy stuff and no weight shifted. Feeling nowhere near hyper have been there before so I know what it's like. GP says 60 is the max he can prescribe, anybody know if this is the case?

[Clarebear]

No - we have some members on here on far more than that e.g. 160mcg of T3. I think it is entirely individual how much each person needs. Xx

[lolajone in reply to Clarebear]

Thanks for that useful to have some backup next time I go

[nobodysdriving]

'present'!

I take 160mcg daily and 1.5 grains of Erfa on top of that

the 160mcg T3 is on NHS the Erfa privately as I felt I needed an increase and I could not be bothered to 'fight/argue' for months on end to get the T3 increased so went privately an got Erfa (much cheaper on private prescription)

[lolajone in reply to nobodysdriving]

Thanks that's useful info can see I will have to do a bit of research on private prescriptions. I'm with you on the 'fight/argue' point feel like I've been battling for 10 years.

[nobodysdriving in reply to lolajone]

T3 on private prescription is not really worth it....approx £75 for 20mcg daily for a month ......

[lolajone in reply to nobodysdriving]

No... I was thinking of looking onto the possibility of getting erfa or some other ndt, GP absolutely refuses to even contemplate the idea and I've raised it a quite a few times, I do feel like I'm missing something, something is out of kilter. Found this site a few weeks ago finding it really useful and its great to know there are other people in the same boat.... my GP informs me that i'm the only one they have come across who is not happy on synthetic T4!

[Aurealis in reply to lolajone]

It must be a very small practice!

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

We have people here on far more than that.

The documentation tends to say that a typical dose is 60 mcg - not that the police will arrive and cart them off if they dare to prescribe any more than that.

Starting dose of 10 or 20 micrograms every 8 hours, increasing after one week, if necessary, to the usual recommended daily dose of 60 micrograms in two or three divided doses.

medicines.org.uk/emc/medici...

That seems to suggest 60mcg is enough for most people but that is clearly not the case for all.

For example, equivalent information for the US Cytomel brand says:

Usual maintenance dose is 50 to 100 mcg daily.

Again, it does not say more will never be required.

Rod

[lolajone in reply to helvella]

thanks Rod useful facts to present at my next appointment

[Clarebear]

I would like to "reply to this" nbd but my iPad won't let me

But anyway!

[Hidden]

I recently saw an NHS Endo who stated that the maximum he would prescribe would be 60mcg. I was taking nearly double that amount.

Having followed his advice, I slowly reduced to 60mcg and felt dreadful, couldn't function at all so have increased.

Back to self-medicating for me!

[nobodysdriving in reply to Hidden]

I sympathise cinnamon_girl, me also, if I reduce I become a 'vegetable' and am in an extreme pain all over my body, I feel a hundred times worse than I ever felt before I started on meds, it's like the meds have turned me into a 'junkie'

[jkars]

I decided to fight this battle with my Doctor's practice and an NHS Endo.( I was buying the quantities of T3 I needed online and consequently felt well enough to take them all on). It was quite interesting that once I challenged their insistence that it was dangerous for me (with faulty research to back this up) with offers to check for clinical signs of over-medication and my own research papers, they defaulted to the position that they weren't allowed to prescribe more than 60mcg. Luckily, one of the Doctor's at the practice actually agreed it was all nonsense and now prescribes for me.

[tegz]

It seems to becoming the position now that it is necessary for anyone needing treatment for something not understood well has to fight a case and then find an openminded GP to support them.

Have GPs got so lazy and compliant to the staus quo that they have forgotten their mantra- First do no harm?

It strikes me that 'the system' is better protected now than the individual patient- however health concious or responsible they may [try to] be.

The fact that T3 can be difficult to administer should mean more research- not less.