Thyroxine without fillers

[greenfingers]

Does anyone know of types of thyroxine that don't either have any fillers or very little please?

I saw an Endocrinologist back in January who prescribed Eltroxin as he thought my strange stomach issues could be a filler irritant. I took them for two months and did feel slightly better but now they have been discontinued. My GP was/is struggling to find an alternative but has been in touch with the Endocrinologist just waiting for his reply. My GP is away on holiday for two weeks so will have to wait her return.

Just wondered if anyone else had been in a similar position?

[Clutter]

Greenfingers,

All tablets have fillers. If you are in the UK try Wockhardt which has the least amount of fillers than the other 3 makes. If you are intolerant to the fillers in Levothyroxine tablets ask your GP to prescribe liquid thyroxine.

[greenfingers in reply to Clutter]

Thanks Clutter, he did say there were about 4 types also in one in liquid form. It may have to be the liquid. Thanks again.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

All forms of levothyroxine have excipients (bulking agents, binders, disintegrants and all other sorts of inactive ingredients). The amount of thyroid hormone in any dose is incredibly small and it would be impossible to handle it without.

The Eltroxin you had in January is absolutely 100% identical to Mercury Pharma levothyroxine. They have the exact same Product Licence number.

It is ridiculous that your endocrinologist and GP cannot, at least between them, identify this is the case! It is not at all hidden, just look them up here:

medicines.org.uk/emc/search...

(It is so very annoying when medics tell people not to look things up on the internet. Then demonstrate that they are themselves incapable of answering the question - or looking it up on the internet. That you have had to come to a patient forum to get an answer...)

You should be able to take your prescription to a pharmacy and request they dispense Mercury Pharma product. Possibly you will have to traipse round several pharmacies or even use an internet pharmacy. But it should be possible.

There are only four formulations of levothyroxine tablet on the UK market: Wockhardt (25), Actavis (also currently sold as Almus) (50 and 100), Mercury Pharma (whether packaged as Eltroxin or levothyroxine) (25, 50 and 100), Teva (12.5, 25, 50, 75, 100).

What make were you taking when you had issues?

[greenfingers in reply to helvella]

Strangely enough Mercury Pharma, I could scratch all day after taking it besides the stomach issues. The Eltroxin didn't make me scratch at all.

[bluehaven201 in reply to helvella]

Do you know which have the least fillers, binders etc?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to bluehaven201]

I don't think that "least fillers" is a useful approach.

All levothyroxine products are almost all excipients (ingredients other than the active ingredient) simply because the actual amount of levothyroxine is so small.

If you tolerate the excipients, the amount present shouldn't make much, if any, difference.

If you don't tolerate the excipients, you need to avoid those that are causing the problem, regardless of amount.

I guess a product with ten excipients is statistically more likely to be a problem than one with five excipients. But other than that, "least fillers" whether as amount or number of excipients doesn't really help very much.

This is Thyroid UK's list:

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

The product with the smallest number of excipients is Tirosint from IBSA.

[jimh111]

This is Concordia up to their tricks again, ripping off the NHS by making Eltroxin difficult to obtain. Eltroxin is a branded drug and subject to price control. In April Eltroxin was 4.74p per tablet whereas generic levothyroxine was 5.61p per tablet. Concordia generic is identical to Eltroxin but somehow Eltroxin is in short supply. Might I suggest you complain to the MHRA regarding Concordia not releasing stocks of Eltroxin.