Hi everyone

[JuliePooh]

Was diagnosed with hypothyroidism approx 2 years ago. Hoping to gain lots of info on here as just had levo dose doubled and feeling pretty lousy 🙁

[greygoose]

Hi JuliePooh, welcome to the forum.

Doubling the dose is not always a good thing to do. But, it depends on what your dose was before it was doubled. It would be good if you could tell us a little more about yourself. Here, we like numbers : results, ranges, dose, dates, etc.

[JuliePooh in reply to greygoose]

Hi greygoose, thank you for your reply. Once I was diagnosed a couple of years ago I have always been on 50mgs of Levo. Back in Feb I had pneumonia and haven't felt well since. Had bloods done in May and TSH was 2.88, classed as normal even though I had put weight on, felt tired, joint and muscle ache. Been tested for RA and last doc said I had fibromyalgia altho she did bloods and TSH last week was 8.31, ferritin 43, b12 406 and folate 3.2. She doubled my dose and advised me to take a multivitamin with iron. On fri/sat I had horrible migraine and spent both days in bed, yesterday I kept going hot and cold and felt sick and this morning I have no energy whatsoever and when I do move it feels like my heart is racing - could this be down to the increase do you think?

[greygoose in reply to JuliePooh]

Your doctor is a moron. You should not have been left on 50 mcg for over two years. It should have been increased by 25 mcg six weeks after starting it - but only by 25 mcg. Increasing by 50 mcg has probably stressed your body and is causing problems - especially as you haven't been well. I think you might feel better if your reduced your dose by 25 mcg, and took 75 mcg for a few weeks, and then up it to 100. Then, get retested six weeks after starting 100 mcg.

2.88 is far from a normal TSH. When you are on thyroid hormone replacement, it should be one or under. And your doctor shouldn't be dosing you by the TSH, anyway. Does she at least test your FT4 and FT3?

It really is a bad idea to take nutritional advice from a doctor - any doctor, but especially not the kind you're seeing! lol They don't 'do' nutrition in med school. Taking a multivit is just about the worst advice she could have given you. Instead she should have been honest and said 'just throw your money down the drain, and carry on suffering! A multivit with iron will mean you won't absorb any of the vitamins because iron blocks their absorption. And, as they usually also contain calcium, you won't absorb the iron, either, because it will bind with the calcium. This is basic chemistry, and she should know that, at least! Besides, you won't find one with enough iron to raise your level. There are many more reasons not to take multis, but I won't bore you with them all.

I think the best thing you can do is post your nutrient levels - with ranges - always with ranges - and let our 'experts' comment on them, and tell you what you need to take. Did she not also test your vit D? That's pretty important, too!

[SlowDragon Administrator]

So you had your dose doubled from 50mcgs to 100mcgs?

If so that's probably too big an increase in one go. Dose is usually increased in 25mcg steps, waiting at least 6-8 weeks for retest, letting body get used to new dose. Then if necessary dose is increased a further 25mcgs etc

Suggest you reduce dose to 75mcg daily for few weeks. You can either alternate 100/50 or cut a 50 in half and take 50 plus a half

Multivitamins (especially if contain iodine) are not good idea.

We need specific supplements once certain vitamins have been tested.

Do you know the range for ferritin?

Have you had vitamin D tested?

Also very important, do you know if you have been tested for autoimmune thyroid disease (High antibodies) If not ask GP to test.

[JuliePooh in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi Slowdragon, thank you for your reply. I Am currently waiting for GP to call me back as reading through some of the topics on here I don't think the 'locum'GP I saw last week had a clue about thyroid probs. I was told to go back in 3 months to have bloods checked!! The range for ferritin is 20 - 350 - how can that be a sensible range? No vit d test or autoimmune test done. Wondering if I should request a referral to an endocrinologist?

[shaws Administrator]

Blood tests for thyroid hormones have to be at the very earliest possible, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose and test and take it afterwards. This gives us the best result.