Armour to erfa problems , thoughts please

[Val-55]

My daughter has been

taking armour for well over a year on a private prescription, due to the exorbitant cost and the refusal of her pct to give her a nhs prescriptin ( Levo did not work at all ) on the endo advice she swapped to erfa as a lot cheaper . The strength I believe is a bit less than armour but like for like given . 6 weeks later she is ill again , sent home from work as she can hardly function. Is this common changing brands .? I know nothing about Erfa , I take Nature Throid and do well but that is difficult to get . My daughter wanted to stay in the loop of being prescribed medication as she is only young and it’s a long time if you take it on to self medicate . If she went back to Armour and still got a monthly private prescription but did not draw it .... buy online would that work with Dr do you think ? Thanks Val

[phoenix23002]

I took Erfa for about 5 yrs, changing to them when Armour reformulated and became impossible to find. Then, about 2 yrs ago (?) Erfa changed their mfg facilities from Belgium to Spain and the complaints started rolling in even tho Erfa refuses to acknowledge that there is a difference between the 'old' and the 'new' Erfa. The weird thing is that some folks are doing well on the 'new' Erfa but many of us (myself included), did lousy on the 'new' Erfa. I am now taking WP and keeping my fingers crossed that RLC Labs finally gets WP and Naturethroid production back to normal. Get your daughter back on Armour until the WP/Naturethroid shortage abates. Then switch her over to one of those two brands. Or... NP by Acella has had excellent reviews. I did wonderfully on NP but it wasn't readily available in my area a few years back... so WP for me.

[Val-55 in reply to phoenix23002]

Thankyou , that’s interesting , I thought there was an issue with erfa but wasn’t it quite a few years ago ? I’m thinking stick to what you know makes you well , shame Armour so expensive . But yes when this WP thing settles down worth trying , I do well on Naturethroid but havnt tried any other NDT to compare .val

[phoenix23002 in reply to Val-55]

Here is a link to the STTM message board where patients are commenting and sharing their experience with the 'new' Erfa. You can click back to the beginning of the comments... I think they started in 2014 ?? not sure of date. But this link is to the newest comments. As some have noted, the complaints have dwindled over the last year... not because Erfa has improved but most have moved onto other NDT brands. Well, it won't let me post the link for some reason. Just google search .. sttm new erfa problems and look for Part II: Erfa Canada. Scroll to the bottom of the comments and that should be the latest comments about Erfa.

[Val-55 in reply to phoenix23002]

Thankyou so much for posting will have a look and send on to her .

[Hidden]

Whether your daughter takes Erfa or Armour would be impossible to tell by looking at her labs as both drugs contain T3 and T4 (Armour contains 1 mcg of T3 and 3 mcg of T4 more per grain so no big difference). So your daughter could switch to Armour (or Nature Throid) without telling her doctor if that's what she'd prefer. Sorry if I misunderstood your question...

[Val-55 in reply to Hidden]

Hello ,, she was doing ok on Armour , just so expensive , trying to cut the cost ... I was just wondering if Erfa was less effective than Armour ,,it seems some brands suit some people and not others . Will have to stump up and go back to Armour !!

[Hidden in reply to Val-55]

Yes, that's true! I have tried both in the past (now on Thai NDT) and also preferred Armour. That was back when everyone was singing Erfa's praises in blogs such as Stop the Thyroid Madness, and I could never understand why I did not do as great on it as everyone else seemed to be doing...but I agree the cost of Armour is prohibitive nowadays. In Belgium, it literally tripled in price overnight...my doctor (who started prescribing Erfa at that point) told me many of her patients could no longer afford Armour. The price difference between various brands of NDT is really strange...if the raw material had become so much more expensive, you'd expect all brands to end up more expensive, not just Armour (and possibly Nature Throid as well...)?

[Val-55]

We will never know the answers, but Erfa does seem to have caused problems ...and I can see the difference since my daughter swapped over ...should have not changed but £150 per month Armour to about £75 is a big difference on a private prescription . Will have to buy Armour online ,

[Framboise]

Val, I agree with phoenix, something happened to ERFA about 3 years ago which affected some of us badly, but not everyone. A few people are still reporting problems but most of those affected moved to other brands and are doing well on them, although people in Canada have more difficulty in doing that, as one of my friends has found. Hopefully your daughter will be able to try Nature-Throid or WP when they are back in stock, and they should suit her as well as Armour has done.