Stopping thyroxine

[Trideug]

Has anyone successfully stopped thyroxine, I have been taking thyroxine for 15 years and never felt well . I am Down to 65 a day .

[Nanaedake]

If you have a lack of thyroid hormone then you need to take levothyroxine and you should not stop taking it and it will have an impact on your health.

There could be a number of reasons why you have never felt well. If you post your latest thyroid test results along with the laboratory ranges on this forum then people will be able to help you work out what's gone wrong and how you can restore you health and well being.

[Marz]

Do you take other medications ? - if so they could be interfering with the Levo.

[silverfox7]

There are several do's and don'ts to be aware of when taking thyroid medication and through no fault of your own you may not be dong things in the best way. Doctors either don't know this or fail to tell you. If you look at the Thyroid Uk site-they run this forum-then you will find lots of useful info. Shout out if anything you don't understand. They are also recommended on NHS Choices for thyroid dysfunction so your doctor can't argue that you shouldn't be taking advice from the internet.

[amadeusdante]

I would suggest getting a reverse T3 test done. You may not be converting the Levothyroxine T4. I had the same problem a couple of years ago, they took me off Levi and gave me Liothyronine and my life was transformed. The only worry then is getting hold of the Lio but good luck. The test is worth the small investment.

[greygoose in reply to amadeusdante]

You don't need an expensive rT3 test to show how well you are converting. An FT4 and FT3 taken at the same time will show it even better. If your FT4 is at the top of the range, and the FT3 below mid-range, you are obviously not converting well. And if your FT4 is at the top of the range, the excess unconverted T4 will obviously be converting to rT3.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Thyroxine is not a drug but a replacement hormone that you need to live

You can not stop taking it. You can become very ill

Quite likely you were never on correct dose. Do you know if you have high thyroid antibodies, this is autoimmune thyroid disease also called Hashimoto's.

Can you post your test results from when you were on dose before you started reducing. What was that dose

How long have you been taking on 65mcgs

Do you also have test results for vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

If you can't get full thyroid and vitamin testing from GP

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have money off offers. DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw or

All thyroid tests should be done as early as possible in morning and fasting and don't take Levo in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take straight after.

[SilverAvocado]

It's common for people not to feel well on Levothyroxine. There are three main reasons 1) This is a medication that needs very fine tuned dosing, you need to be on exactly the right dose for you to feel well. Doctors often leave out this fine tuning and leave patients on the same starter dose for years. 2) A minority of patients do not do well on Levo alone, and need one of the other two thyroid hormone formulations that are available. Again, many doctors do not work with T3 or NDT, the two other formats. 3) being hypothyroid reduces our ability to digest food properly and get all the proper nutrients from them. This means many hypothyroid people are nutrient deficient, and ironically we need good nutrient levels for the thyroid hormones to work properly.

This website can help you with all three of these things. Post whatever blood tests you have to get started. If you don't have up to date blood tests it is very easy to get mail order, finger prick tests. BlueHorizon and Medichecks are both good and you can find all the details on the ThyroidUK website.

If money is tight, get the full thyroid panel including TSH, freeT3, freeT4 and thyroid antibodies. If you can afford it get the ones that cost about £100 and include the thyroid panel plus ferritin, folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin D.

[Lily288]

Trideug...

Hypothyroidism......I was on 100mcg Levothyroxine for years and was fine, when just a couple of years ago, I began to feel awful and noted that I felt worse after taking my LTR .... So I cut it down to half and later down to one quarter or.25mcg.... So for me I needed less levo and I feel much better.....I've been on .25mcg now for almost two years....I'm not completely off yet but working on it...