taking erfa?

[Stephanie70]

Hi does anyone take erfa? Its like armour thyroid, my new endocrinologist wants me to take erfa instead of euthyral (synthecticT4 and T3) just wondering if anyone has anything good or bad to say about erfa? Im english but live in Belgium just to save any confusion

[shaws Administrator]

Hi zorrogirl

You are indeed fortunate your Endo wants to prescribe Erfa. It is one of the popular Natural Dessicated Thyroid Hormones and you will get all of the hormones your healthy thyroid would have produced.

You should feel much better as long as you get sufficient to remove your clinical symptoms. Some doctors think it's o.k. if our hormones reach a 'normal' level but your Endo sounds as if he knows what he's doing. Many of us feel well when TSH is 1 or below or suppressed.

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

Wishing you well on your new regime.

[Stephanie70 in reply to shaws]

Thanks for the info yes i have a great endo, im starting next week! We can get armour and erfa without perscription here! Can you get erfa and other natural thyroid hormones in uk? I might move back but not if i dont get the right treatment and meds!? Thanks

[Clutter in reply to Stephanie70]

Zorrogirl, NDT isn't licensed for use in the UK so very few NHS GPs and endos will prescribe it but Armour, Erfa, NatureThroid and WP are prescribed by a few. Most buy online.

Maybe you could move back but keep seeing your endo in Belgium You can import up to 3 months Erfa for personal use and who's to know whether you are on 2 or 20 grains daily?

[Framboise]

I took ERFA for several years and it was very good, I felt very well. Then just over a year ago they changed manufacturing country from Belgium to Spain and although they say nothing has changed, some of us have had problems with it and have had to change to other makes. A friend of mine gets hers from a pharmacy in Belgium and it's been fine, but mine from a different place wasn't, so it could be a matter of transportation or storage problems, no-one knows. I think most of it is ok again, but the tablets should be cream coloured and not shiny. If you get any which are speckled and shiny then just be aware they may not be as potent. There is more about this on the STTM blog and Facebook pages. I think about four of us were affected on this HU forum.

[Stephanie70 in reply to Framboise]

Thanks for mentioning that i never knew! Picking up next week will be checking straight away! I can buy armour but its more expensive and chemist said is made in same factory!? Thanks for the tip

[Framboise in reply to Stephanie70]

I'd be very surprised if ERFA and Armour were made in the same factory, but then I was surprised to know that ERFA was made in Europe and not Canada, so I suppose it is possible. ERFA have denied that the formulation has changed, despite many people finding a difference with some of the batches, but not all, so if the two are made in the same place I wonder if the change has been due to more cellulose. This is worth investigating so thanks for mentioning it!

[Stephanie70 in reply to Framboise]

Hiya just wanted to let you know i got my erfa and there cream coloured and not shiny! Chemist said its made in canada?! Not europ?, they buy in bulk seeing as armour has more than doubled in price! Hopefully i have got the right ones batch number is LF03834A, and to wait to see if i start feeling better! Thanks for all the advice bye

[Framboise in reply to Stephanie70]

Thank you for letting me know the batch number, that's very helpful. The ERFA company is in Canada but the actual thyroid tablets are made for them in Europe. They used to be made in Belgium apparently, then they changed to a company in Spain which used different compression machines and some people thought that was why the tablets were different. Somewhere I also read that some of them were made for ERFA in New Zealand, but I don't know if that was right. ERFA kept saying nothing had changed in the formulation, which made some people think the problem with speckled tablets and less potency could be due to incorrect storage along the line. They used to be matt and a creamy-beige colour, so it sounds as if they're back to normal again. I thought they were very good when when I took them so good luck, I hope they work as well for you. I'd heard that Armour had increased hugely in price and was no longer being exported to Europe - not helpful for us is it!

[Stephanie70 in reply to Framboise]

One thing i have noticed is that they dont seem to smell?! Is this normal? I remember years ago when i took armour it smelled of pig! I didnt react to armour but i think cause i was so ill i didnt feel anything back then, i have addisons disease aswell now thats sorted i react better to meds what is really wierd! They can still get armour in Belgium but not many people buy it cause of the price! Thanks for your help

[Poshpenny]

I take erfa and it has been brilliant for me

[Framboise in reply to Poshpenny]

Poshpenny, sorry to interrupt here but if you've done well on ERFA throughout the last two years please could you let me know the lot number and expiry date and strength of your current batch? I did very well on it until last year, but changed to Thyroid-S when I got a bad batch, but would go back to ERFA if I knew of a good batch number. Thanks!

[Poshpenny in reply to Framboise]

Hi currently talking both 30 and 60mg pills, both have expiry date 08/17. Don't have batch number. I think there was a flaky batch of 60mg pills last yer with expiry date 08/16. I wasn't affected by them so don't know for sure.

[Framboise in reply to Poshpenny]

Thanks, good to know they're ok again!