Advice on meds.

[Karen1963]

Hi; I have autoimmune hypothyroid and have been treated for 6 years. I have never really felt good on treatment ... Was on 120 grams of erfa (pig gland) for 5 years (the first year was on synthroid ) and felt awful.. Erfa I was much better but the last 6 months I've been terrible; heart palaptations can't sleep ( I never was able to lose weight slowly creeps on even with 6 days gym) no gluten or dairy; just meat and vegetables diet. Anyways I had hyper symptoms lately my tsh is 0.04 , ft4 is below low range; ft3 is low normal. I was a bit hyper so doc did tests (results above) and said because my tsh is so low to cut my dose from 120 mg to 90 mg... This is day 5 and I'm exhausted swelling and feeling gross... How can I be hyper yet hypo?

[waveylines]

I used to be in Erfa and at first felt well on it. When they moved factories and countries, changed their pill pressers to make their meds I went downhill. I too frequently felt hyper though my blood tests did not say so. I felt so ill. I swelled up and infact ended up off work for several weeks! I switched from Erfa to a different NDT and have never looked back. I am in the same dose as when I took Erfa but everything has resolved. There was loads about this on stopthethyroidmadness. Erfa deny it has made a difference but my pharmacist told me that changing all the pill pressers could lead to a change in ability to absorb the meds.

In your shoes I would change your NDT. I moved across to WP. Been fine since. Took me over three months to build my thyroid hormones back up. Been stable ever since.

[radd]

Karen,

Welcome to our forum and sorry to hear about your health issues.

HYPO symptoms can sometimes be interpreted as HYPER. TSH ( and possibly T4) is usually very low when medicating NDT but a low T3 would indicate you were under medicated and needed a dose INCREASE. Under-medication could provoke a Hashi attack when TSH would fluctuate but unless tested at each extreme level is difficult to prove.

Many members find a fine margin to get meds working right and often only optimal iron and nutrients levels will necessitate good thyroid function.

Ask your GP to test Vit B12, Vit D, folate & ferritin and post results complete with ranges (numbers in brackets) for members to comment. A doctors "normal" may not be a level that members have found to be most beneficial to help good thyroid hormone synthesis.

Adequate cortisol is also required and members use a saliva stress test that measures the available "active" cortisol (& DHEA) secreted at set times over a 24 hours period. The results will allow you to see any imbalances in the daily circadian pattern so enabling use of correcting supplements to aid your adrenal health. Unfortunately this test is not generally used or recognised by GP's.

I read that sometimes NDT is intolerant of a high level of thyroid antibodies. If you wanted to explore this and your doctor is uncooperative retesting, you can use private labs as many members are forced to -link below.

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Saliva Stress Test (test ref END01)

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

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Medicating NDT

stopthethyroidmadness.com/m...

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Private labs testing

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

[Karen1963 in reply to radd]

Yes I've had all of these tests on the past; my Naturalpath did them as medical doctor won't. My B12 is high normal, vitamin d they won't screen for and iron is midrange normal. I supplement with 10,000 units of vit d and take vitamin supplements for thyroid and the adrenals.

Both the naturalpath and Md have said to cut my dose back - as they want to do different hormone tests.. Pituatory and other tests in another few weeks ..my autoimmune antitpo antibodies keep dropping (originally >500 last test 90).

I'm just wondering if there's more going on; trying to find balance and sanity