Hi sorry not wrote a post for a while. But I just wanted to know if anyone has trouble when they have been on a certain brand of levothyroxine, and then they change it. Do people experience side effects. Maybe it's all in my head. But I have spoke the pharmacy and they are going to keep me on the same brand. Just that I have put weight on, feeling exhausted and very anxious.
Thanks xx
Happy-go-lucky,
It's not in your head. Some patients have significant adverse effects when their brand is changed. My pharmacy has a note not to supply me Mercury Pharma T4 which used to exacerbate the palpitations I experienced.
Thanks for quick response I told the pharmacy last time who pick up my drugs. I am much better on Mercury pharma as always had them. Now and again the give me activis. The anxiety and feeling spaced out is over whelming and not had anxiety for so long. It's a pain. My mum who is a nurse was saying it's all in my head. Xx
They give you whatever they've got at the time unless you insist. You may have to get your doc to write the make on your prescription, but ask the pharmacy first.
Actavis didn't agree with me either. It's not all in your head. It may be the fillers which disagree with you.
Make sure your vitamins & minerals are optimum.
It's funny how quickly people are to dismiss these issues as being 'in your head' when they have no evidence that that is the case (no offense to your mum). I don't understand, if it doesn't cause a lot of hassle to fix and has no impact on them, why other people even venture an opinion.
I am super-sensitive now to people who seem intent on aggressively disproving a theory that has zero implications for them, just so they can feel like they've won, like my gp who, when I was bereaved, wrote me the prescription I'd requested for an antidepressant but also told me it only worked because of the placebo effect. I mean, he wasn't trying to withhold the script, and he wasn't saying it wouldn't help; why bother sticking the knife in?
There's a lot of it about.
Sorry, was I raving? 
Good luck with your script. My lovely pharmacist (now sadly no longer employed in my local pharmacy) used to keep my brand by for me and fully agreed that some people do better on one brand.
Thanks for that. I do feel better when I come in here. I didn't realise it was because of the brand. It just clicked. So it's on my notes and they brought me Mercury pharma today x
Good for you! It's one of those things that some people make a big deal about making it hard for you and others just go, ok, that's fine.
One Sunday when my pharmacist wasn't at work there was a locum who gave me such a patronising lecture about how they couldn't keep my brand and I kept thinking ok, whatever, I know the boxes are right there in that drawer held together with a rubber band and my name on them.
Doctors can be differcult sometimes. They wanna try and live with thyroid problems it's not pleasant x
Amen.
I have had a suspicion that I might be better off on one brand compared to the other but since I have changed chemists I have not had the opportunity to put my suspicion into practice as yet. Interesting to note that others have had issues with different brands.
When I first started taking levothyroxine, even though I was well aware some people felt different on one make to another, I was convinced I would not notice any difference. In time, I did notice. And I do care.
Actavis seemed to leave me feeling under-dosed before my next dose.
Mercury Pharma made me feel over-dosed a couple of hours after taking it, but still feeling under-dosed before my next dose.
Aliud and Henning levothyroxine were fine, but ended up relatively expensive.
I felt great on Mercury pharma and I recently made the connection. So will just stay on that brand. It says levothyroxine sodium. So the outer layer must be sodium based. Oh it does matter and I didn't think it did either xx
Most levothyroxine tablets that I know of are levothyroxine sodium. (It might be "all" but there could be one or two that are not.) In the very early days of levothyroxine development, the use of the sodium form was shown to have certain advantages.
I went on here for advice and am so glad I did. Thought I was getting sick again xx
Try and find a pharmacy that will keep your details on file and know what brand you want each time, my pharmacy knows the brand I take and provide with no issues whereas another pharmacy insisted I get the doctor write the specific brand so stopped using them. I take actavis most symptoms have gone but anxiety is a big one for me. I think it's so something to do with the fillers/coating..going to ask my doc for liquid throxine which is more expensive but less fillers. It is absolutely not in your head x
Thank you I feel normal and know this anxiety won't last for ever it comes on me in waves and can feel it building up. It's the pits. I use simply pharmacy and they put my script in and deliver it to my house. I ring up each month so I will say which brand I want each time xx
I am not willing to jump to that conclusion without some decent evidence. At the same time, I'd not defend our having three makes which are clearly not bioequivalent in many, many people who take them.
I had a difficult time for a few years when I almost came to believe it was all in my head. Don't let them take you there. Stability is everything - that's my firm belief now. Insist on having the brand you are best with, and take your prescription elsewhere if the pharmaacist doesn't cooperate.
Definitely. Whenever the chemist dispensed Wockhardt my symptoms came back, when they dispensed any other brand (ANY other brand) the symptoms went away. This went on for a few months before I realised the cause.
Three different chemists confirmed it's well known that some brands make some people ill but they don't know why. They also said they are only allowed to dispense what their wholeseller provides unless the doctor puts the brand name on the prescription.
My sister in law is a nurse and told me that part of their training states that people coming into hospital must be kept on the same brand of tablets if they are for heart problems, mental health problems or thyroid problems.
Thanks that is reassuring. Am back on Mercury pharma. It will take a few days to feel normal again. But they have put it on my script now. Xx
Brands of medication
levo brands!
Switching brands of Thyroxine
Real issues with brands
Lactose free brands of Levo
