What's the difference?

[deanna69]

Hi everyone

Can someone please explain to me what all these medications are

I only know levo thyroxine as my mum has taken this for 35 years but what's armour? And T3 T4 and ndt? I genuinely thought there was really only thyroxine that would replace what the body had stopped producing and have never heard of anyone close to me having been prescribed anything other than thyroxine or is the other stuff prescribed in other countries outside of the UK? ?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

These two links should help to get started:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatm...

Rod

[deanna69]

Thanks very much so I understand that levo thyroxine is the standard UK treatment and this is the T4 aspect so why are there different drugs like ndt which are prescribed outside of the UK what difference do these make I am going back to see the endo next month with his view to start me on low dose levo thyroxine (he diagnosed autoimmune thyroiditis wouldn't call it Hashis? !) I'm just wondering if that is the best way forward or whether I dare brave enough to ask him about the alternatives as people on here seem to prefer the armour and ndt!

Brain fog has set in once again!!

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to deanna69]

Keep reading here and on the main website!

I don't think you stand any chance whatsoever of getting anything but levothyroxine prescribed. Many people seem to do fine on it so it does seem a sensible starting point even if experience results in changes later.

By the way, if you click on Reply to this the person you are responding to gets an alert email.

Rod

[deanna69 in reply to helvella]

Thanks for your advice and info x

[shaws Administrator]

The guidelines of the British Thyroid Association say that only levothyroxine is to be prescribed.

Natural dessicated thyroid hormones (they contain T4, T2, T3, T1 and calcitonon) were used previously, before the blood tests and synthetic levothyroxine were introduced - in the 70's I believe.

Many people respond to synthetic levothyroxine fine. It's when people find they are not feeling better/or even worse they start looking for answers and now we have Healthunlocked we can find answers. Whether or not the doctors will prescribe is another matter as finding one is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Other names for levothyroxine and liothyronine are - T4 and T3.

[deanna69 in reply to shaws]

Thank you for this! I can't believe how difficult it is trying to firstly persuade the gp to do the relevant blood tests, then even with the confirmed bloods trying to get a firm diagnosis is frustrating to say the least and finally treatment mum was tested and diagnosed and treated straight away in the 70 ' s and has had very little problems but by the sounds of everyone on here its an uphill battle nowadays x

[shaws Administrator in reply to deanna69]

uphill is the right word.