T3 faulty NHS Batch BN 83867

[AndiRiley]

Has anyone had a bad experience with 20mcg tablets ( Mercury ) Batch number 83867?

I started on a new pot on Wednesday, and Thursday was poor, Thursday night bad, Friday a write of, Friday night appalling, Saturday morning symptom score largest for months and back in bed by 1:00pm. ( I use 100LT4 and 20 LT3 )

Saturday 3pm I took a whole "Greek" 25mcg tablet. I got better and better, symptoms melted away and by mid evening I was ok and was up until midnight faffing with difficult computer stuff.

Now using Greek T3, daren't use Mercury stuff. What to do?

I kind of daren't tell my GP as he will want me to use my own supplies ( he hates the cost of NHS T3 ) Having fought for years to get diagnosed as hypo at all and then that I need T3, - I don't want to give him a way out of prescribing T3 just in case of future difficulties in getting hold of my own ( Mexico dried up, new difficulties with international transactions, Brexit ... )

[Ruthi]

Go back to the pharmacist and complain - they need to take it up with the manufacturer, and get you some of a good batch.

[Ruthi]

Oh, and don't confess about the greek stash - you could pretend you had a few of an old batch that you found at the back of the drawer!

[AndiRiley in reply to Ruthi]

Good idea Ruthi.

[Clutter]

AndiRiley,

Make a yellow card report to MHRA yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

You could ask your pharmacist whether they have another batch they can swap with. If not, you will have to tell your GP if you want a new prescription to replace the batch which doesn't suit.

[loueldhen]

Not noticed a problem with them - been taking for a couple of weeks now.

[heathermr]

There is no way of returning a bad batch to a pharmacy and getting it replaced by the pharmacy unless they decide to absorb the cost in the pharmacy which is highly unlikely given the high cost! Yellow card submissions are a complete waste of time, I've submitted over 5 of these for poor batches of this medication over the last couple of years and no-one takes any notice. I got so angry with this poor medication that I wrote a rant E-mail to the manufacturers and at long last I have had some response but still no explanations. I have just picked up this batch as my latest medication and have not tried any yet but it does not surprise me at all. I shall try it with a very heavy heart as I'm so fed up with the return of hypo symptoms after years of having made myself well. I'm in the process of trying to persuade my Gp to give me Cytomel instead as although its imported into this country, it is of much better quality and almost certainly less cost than British T3. However its been a hard process (something like pushing water uphill with one hand!) and I'm still waiting for him to check out all the info I have provided to prove that Cytomel is T3!

Heather

Ps I am still "topping up" my British T3 with Greek T3 having just been on holiday to Greece and cleaned out a couple of pharmacies of their T3! Its not as good as the old Mexican stuff but at least its better than the British stuff!

[AndiRiley]

Do you adjust" downwards your T3 dose just prior to NHS blood tests? I'm now doing just exactly as I like with doses but considering "fiddling" the blood tests so that It always looks OK ( in their glazed NHS eyes ) so they keep on prescribing the Mercury rubbish which is rapidly becoming my plan B medication. I intend to continue doing private testing to check that my true values are not becoming outrageous.

[heathermr in reply to AndiRiley]

No, as I don't have a TSH because of pituitary damage, my Gp has decided sensibly that blood testing is simply not worth it as the T3 result would be too highly dependent on how much I have taken and how active I have been. I don't have any T4 in my body having only taken T3 for the last 6 years either. I go by how I feel, I don't have any overdose symptoms but increasingly my hypo symptoms start to return if I take the British T3 rubbish. I do take about 165mcg in total of T3 which seems a lot but is right for me and has only got to that level over years of slowly increasing until my hypo symptoms disappeared. I also have dementia which is a mix of hypothyroidal dementia and Alzheimer's which was triggered when I was messed around by Gps and Endo with the wrong treatment of my thyroid condition. This is much better since starting the T3 treatment and building the medication slowly to this level. I have not told my Gp about me topping up my T3 as he would refuse to treat me, but after all I know more about T3 than he does thanks to the folks on here!

I don't feel that blood testing tells me anything because its just too variable as T3 breaks down in about 3 hours and I do take my dose in small amounts spread throughout the day and night. If I stopped my T3 for 24 hours (as advised) before a blood test what would that tell me? Any way its too big a risk as my dementia would take a large jump and I don't want to loose any more memory or brain function than necessary. I know my body better than anyone and I know when I feel well or not.

Heather

[AndiRiley in reply to heathermr]

Sounds like you've got control of the whole thing. Well done. I got up to 100mcg per day of T3 at one point with no hyper symptoms and feeling fine. TSH was zero and FT3 was 18 ( 3.5 - 6.5 ) When I got into the hands of an endo she nearly fainted I wasted another half year of my precious life following her expert advice until I recognised her as wearing the emperors clothes.

[heathermr in reply to AndiRiley]

Lol, I like your thinking. I very nearly ended up punching my Endo because he didn't even know basic info about thyroid problems. So far I've done better at getting myself well with the help from people on the forum than any doctor I have seen. Its just getting them to understand we are all different and deserve to be treated and listened to as individuals.

Heather

[ThyroidThora]

Hi,

My endo put me back on T3 in June when he withdrew my Armour and my GP has been prescribing me Mercury Pharma T3 40mcg (2 x 20mcg) per day since and I've felt absolutely shocking. All the old hypothyroid symptoms returned with hair falling out, dry skin, fatigue, aches and pains, constipation, digestion issues, brain fog etc. My batch is exactly the same as your's so, I'm wondering that there might be a faulty batch. My pharmacist orders my T3 in bulk because I'm the only one to get it and there have been issues with supply when I used to have it has T4/T3 combination therapy. I've checked all my recent pill containers and they have the same batch code. Perhaps a Yellow card is in order.

TT x

[AndiRiley]

Damn! I was hoping batch number 83867 was actually ok and that my bad experience on shifting to 100T4+15T3 ( from 75+15) was just a "blip" in my health journey and that The Mercury T3 is actually OK. I was intending to use my Greek T3 for a while and then try again with the Mercury stuff as an experiment. I'm gonna leave it a while though - I want to build up a solid track record of data/experience on 100T4 + 20T3 Greek and maybe 15T3 Greek, before I risk giving myself Mercury poisoning again.

[ThyroidThora in reply to AndiRiley]

I don't blame you, I just wish I could get my natural stuff on NHS prescription because I cannot afford private having lost my job to thyroid cancer 3 years ago nearly now. My endo can no longer provide, my GP refused because it's unlicensed and my oncologist at the cancer hospital has refused even though it's for my cancer treatment. Life sucks doesn't it!!!

[AndiRiley in reply to ThyroidThora]

ThyroidThora have you asked for combination T4+T3 therapy - that seems the obvious route if NDT is not offered? Or you could do your own privately purchased Thyroxine and T3 combination treatment? They are both very cheap. No one on here talks about buying thyroxine ( possibly because it is shoved onto most people in inadequate doses, but I don't actually see it as a dirty word; it does work at some level for lots and lots of people, probably they would ALL be nearer 100% functional with some added T3 but.....

[ThyroidThora in reply to AndiRiley]

Hi I've had T4 monotherapy when my cancer was surgically removed and I got worse and worse and my TSH started rising. Then I started on T4 & T3 comcombination therapy until my endo said I was maxed out and likely to go hyperthyroid even though I felt sh*t. He gradually came round to the idea of Armour and trialled me on it for over a year. The dose was gradually increased and I started to feel much better. I was still physically tired but brain fog was gone, eczema gone, energy up and, overall, I was gradually getting back to the old me. I am back at square 1 again!!!

TT

[Briony_clarke]

Waaahhh!! Me. I started my batch 83867 about two weeks ago. Been feeling rougher and rougher. More and more anxious and tearful. Cold exhausted. I mix up between my Greek T3 and my NHS (similar to OP) I've only just clocked it is a rough batch. To be fair its been a few years since the last lot of dodgy NHS ones but at the £250/pot it costs the NHS it isn't on.

[Neeta-K]

Yes...I started the same batch on Wednesday and my weight is going up, I'm constipated...feel horrible.

I am so sick of this AMCO crap! I'm going to ask the chemist for a new batch tomorrow as I've got a spare script to hand. I made a complaint about them a few years ago. They told me they've had loads of complaints!

[Carm2111]

Could u possibly send me a link to buy the t3 please. Desperate here

[CarolineAnne]

I have had this batch for the last two months and I do not think the batches I had before that worked so great either. I started NHS t3 in April and have gone downwards, back to being bedbound a lot of the time. No energy, digestive issues etc. Before being prescribed NHS t3 I started on Thybon ( German t3) and then switched to Tiromel as it was cheaper. Looking back I did much better on Thybon, I had energy, lost weight, I was very active. Tiromel was ok. I did find myself slowing down and it gave me really bad red spots/ pimples all over my chest, neck and face.

I was happy to get my t3 on the NHS and now I find myself in the position of being scared to complain about poor quality of tablets as I am sure they will take the opportunity to stop prescribing. But I really must do something. I am extremely hypo again.

[Lintably]

I had problems for awhile with the Mercury T3 not working well.

I have found a work around. Via Boots and a cooperative GP I am now on the German T3 from Sandoz. The dosage is slightly different as like the Pfizer and most every other brand other than Mercury they are 25mcg tablets. The cost is about €20 for 30 tablets. They are larger former scored tablets. Easy to break even without a pill cutter. Most importantly I feel better and I'm losing weight.

If you need more info about how I achieved the workaround, let me know. Perhaps my pharmacist at Boots can speak with your pharmacist.