Anyone with experience of getting dairy and Gluten free thyroxine through Martindales? Advice needed!

[MidnightBlue]

I am trying to find a gluten and dairy free source of levothyroxine. I have heard that it is possible to obtain it through Martindales, but don't know how to go about it. Any advice really welcome. I will need to pay for it myself, GP will write private prescription ( but will only prescribe usual levothyroxine on NHS)

[helvella Administrator]

Get doctor to write a prescription. Pay for it.

Tout the prescription round local pharmacies asking for best prices and doing your best to identify the ones with the best attitude. Maybe include proper UK internet pharmacies.

Go to collect it with very well-charged credit or debit card.

That is all there is to it.

(I know about getting lactose-free - which followed this sort of path. I don't think there is any reason to expect your requirements to need anything different in terms of the processes.)

Rod

[MidnightBlue in reply to helvella]

Thanks for the reply. Do I need to ask my G.P. to list the fillers on the prescription?

[helvella Administrator in reply to MidnightBlue]

I really don't know. Maybe it would be best to talk to pharmacy before getting prescription so that issue can be resolved. As it is the pharmacy which contacts Martindales, they clearly would be the ones to ask.

Rod

[Hidden]

This is an interesting post - i was told (cannot remember by whom) that ALL uk medicines are gluten free.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Hidden]

All UK prescription medicines are gluten-free. The original poster also wants lactose-free. All UK levothyroxine products contain lactose. Apparently German levothyroxine products might not be gluten-free. Hence the Martindales questions.

[Ansteynomad]

Just one question. If you are lactose intolerant and therefore need lactose free meds, why are you being expected to pay for them?

[MidnightBlue]

I am not diagnosed lactose intolerant, but am vegan, and would anyway avoid lactose for health reasons. It is really interesting to hear that uk medicines are gluten free. I have heard that the colours are not always gluten free, and when I phone manufacturers to check if a medicine is gluten free they always have to check. I am sure boots told me some forms of their co codomol were not gluten free? But is that because it is an over the counter medicine rather than a prescription one?

[helvella Administrator in reply to MidnightBlue]

It isn't my claim as such, it is what Coeliac UK say:

All medications and drugs that your GP prescribes are gluten-free. If you are buying a medicine which has not been prescribed by your GP, if there is a Product Licence (PL) number on the packet, this medicine will also be gluten-free.

coeliac.org.uk/coeliac-dise...

Corroborated by information elsewhere.

I am not in any known way wheat or gluten intolerant - so cannot report first hand!

Note, that could exclude products which are not prescribed/do not have a Product Licence.

Rod

[MidnightBlue]

Thanks, that is very interesting to know.

[helvella Administrator in reply to MidnightBlue]

Have to say, given the number of people who for cultural, genetic, or other reasons can't, won't, or would rather not consume lactose, I'd like to see that disappear as well! We quite possibly have a larger proportion of the population who are lactose intolerant than ever before - madness including it as an ingredient.

Rod

[MidnightBlue]

Total madness. I have just been looking through some old posts, and it seems that Martindales will be insanely expensive. I might go back and try and beg the doctor to prescribe the oral medicine again, but I doubt it will do any good as they had a Practice meeting to discuss my request and turned me down. One hope is that I may be clinically lactose intolerant, as I have been vegan for 20 years so have most likely lost any ability to digest lactose by now!

[caidantes in reply to MidnightBlue]

Have been reading the posts about lactose free and martindales... I looked on their website and 100mcg capsules are about £134 for 100. I hadn't realised that perhaps I'd have to pay for them myself. Why should we have to pay? I can't even get my GP to do the lactose intolerance test!