Advice on taking liothyronine

[Raventhorpe]

Hi I have just been lucky enough to be given a trial of t3 by my endo,5mcg three time's a day as I already take levo thyroxine 100mcg 5 days a week and 125mcg 2days a week they have dropped my dose of levo by 25mcg a day just wanted some advice about whether I should gradually introduce the t3 or just take as advised by my endo.

[Clutter]

Raventhorpe,

I would take it as your endo directed. If you feel overmedicated skip a dose. Like Levothyroxine, T3 should be taken away from food, drink, supplements and other meds.

[Raventhorpe in reply to Clutter]

Thank you clutter, always value your knowledgeable advice.

[mrsm49]

I dropped levo by 25 for about5 days then added in 5mcg t3. Didn't seem to do much so added in another 5mcg after a week. Like clutter says just see how you feel , i also monitored my morning temp and heart rate.

Ive bn on t3 trial since sept and only overmedicated once (took 25 instead of 20) after 2 days my resting heart rate jumped fm usual 75 to 114. I stopped taking t3 for a day and all back to normal.

I keep levo at least 1hour away from food but personally ive tried it and it doesn't seem to make a diff with t3 and food/drink for me (although i do keep vitamins/tablets away fm t3) Once yr bit settled on yr t3 dose you could experiment as its a real pain avoiding any food/drink if taking small doses through day.

Currently I take 75levo/10t3 at 6am , then 5mcg t3 at 11am and 5mcg t3 at 3pm. I set alarms on my phone to remind me. The timings for me usually mean t3 is not near big meals but often near a snack 😉

Its trial and error getting doses of levo and t3 right and also timings but so worth persevering as deff helped me enormously. Good luck xx

[108Optimist]

'They' say that t3 has 4 times more punch than t4. Not sure if that's true. If it is then 5mcg t3 equivalent to 20mcg t4 (assuming absorption and utilisation etc).

15mcg t3 then may have as much power as 15x4= 60mcg t4.

You dropped your dose by 20mcg a day so if 'they' are anywhere near correct then you will be getting a 60-20= equivalent to 40 mcg t4 increase.

Note how this is ALL based on here say and guessing so don't take it too seriously.

If you are previously feeling underdosed anyway then it could be great. If you are stable levels and symptoms then it couldbe too much. But why would you try t3 if you were stable and content, so that's probably not the case.

Hopefully your endo is basing dose on better science than what I have just shared! !!

Have you ever gone hyper before? It's horrid and you really know about it. Look out for racing heart and Palps even when you are seated or lying. If you get that then don't hesitate to drop back the dose immediately and get a test for levels the next day.

That's what I would do anyway. I have experimented heaps with ndt but not separate t4 or t3.

Go well

[Raventhorpe in reply to 108Optimist]

Hi 108Optimist thanks for your input. I will be monitoring my temperature and pulse, hoping that endo has got the dosage right for me. I really don't want to go hyper as know how horrible symptoms can be as I have graves Desease and until I had Rai was hyper.although my Thyroid levels look good I still am very symptomatic tbh have never felt well since having the Rai wish I had never had it done, am really hoping that the t3 will work for me.