Starting Dose Questions. Levothyroxine or Armor

[krizzobizzle]

Hi Everyone. I'm Jen.

I'm transgender first of all.

For the past 9 months I have been progressively feeling worse and worse, and the hypo symptoms prompted me to get a Thyroid test from my GP which came back within range.

Still feeling all these symptoms that perfectly fit with Hypothyroid ( hair falling out, constantly tired, dry skin etc ) I decided to take matters into my own hands and pay for a test which also tested for thyroid antibodies.

Here are the results:

THYROID FUNCTION:

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone - 2.46 ( range 0.2 - 4.2 )

Free Thyroxine - 14.58 ( range 12 - 22 )

Total T4 - 82.0 ( range 59 - 154 )

Free T3 - 4.19 ( range 3.1 - 6.8 )

THYROID ANTIBODIES

*Thyroglobulin Antibody - 401.0 ( range 0 - 115 ui/ml ) HIGH!!

Thyroid Peroxidase - 23.0 ( range 0 -34 ui/ml )

I definitely want to start treatment to try and get my TGAB antibodies down, as well treat the symptoms I'm experiencing.

I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on what would be a sensible starting dose? I don't feel my GP knows much about this if I'm being perfectly honest and I cant afford yet to fund private treatment. I feel the NHS just look at my levels being normal and treat me like a stat sheet, instead of someone with real issues.

So a few things:

1 ) What would be most effective based on my labs. Would it be Armor or Levo or perhaps both? Does anyone have a preference?

2 ) Is anyone familiar with the study of euthyroid hashimoto's. It says that "After 1 year of therapy with LT4, TPO-Abs and B lymphocytes decreased significantly only in the treated group of euthyroid patients with HT"

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/113...

3 ) What starting dose would lower TSH by 1 to get me closer to 1.0-14 to see if my symptoms improved. I have heard that just taking 25mcg could lower your thyroid activity even further? Is this true?

Thank you so much to this community I have learned so much

[Clutter]

Hi Krizzobizzle,

I commented on your previous thread about euthyroid Hashi's. My symptoms were mostly hyper so I don't imagine thyroid replacement would have helped me even if my doctors were prepared to prescribe it (and they weren't, of course). Even if antibodies are reduced the lost function won't be restored although further loss may be prevented.

If you are going to self-medicate I would start with 25mcg Levothyroxine. It takes 7-10 days for Levothyroxine to be absorbed and up to six weeks to feel the full impact of the dose. I would wait 6-8 weeks to see whether symptoms are improving and have a thyroid function test before increasing dose. I think it is a myth about 25mcg reducing one's own thyroid function. There are many people who are helped by 25mcg but would feel over medicated on 50mcg.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to Clutter]

Just make sure you take your Levo 4 hours away from estrogen.

[silverfox7]

Just a comment to add I can see some sense in what Clutter is saying about 25 could make you feel worse but I think the main point is that we are all different so that scenario could be valid for some and not others but the main thing is that you start on a low dose and test after 6 weeks and increase as necessary repeating the procedure until you are getting results in the top third for FT4 and FT3 and are feeling well.

If you look on the Thyroid Uk site there is lots of useful info, does and don'ts, etc. shout out if anything you don't understand.

[lindabcampbell]

hello for me endo had me on amour 60mg and then had me take another 15 mg to bring it down what is normal at stanford in palo alto calif what i found that every doctor seems to had different tsh # stanford its 0.40-4.0 othert hospital its low my tsh # is 6.24 ant loer and i don`t feel good so i`am taking 60 mg of amour your hash should go away after being on the replacement remember not to eat gluten now i`ve been told i`am lucky to beable to go from doctor to doctor until i find a good one that works for me as everyone see the people in america was just getting good health care now we have a_____________ you can fill that in who wants to remove our healthcare ,we won`t let him uk has a different gov. to get better health like the welloff people have you thought have starting a movement get the ear of someone high up maybe a prince that could help all people get better health care just a thought?

[lindabcampbell]

you are emailing this site so you have a a search engine so why not just type in what you want to know and go to other websites like the MAYO CLINIC it in america but thyroid problem are the same no matter where you live if you type in--( mayo clinic thyroid problems ) you will go to their website and there lots of information on it i why not it can`t hurt