Normal to feel worse on levo?

[Live4jesus2009]

Hi, I’m hypothyroid, and my doc prescribed me .25 mcg of levo. I also have Addison’s and am on meds for that. I’ve been taking It for less than a week and I feel so much worse. I have horrible anxiety, body pain, headaches, bad depression. I just want to quit. Will this get better? It scares me how bad I’m feeling. My endo said she is gonna recheck my bloodwork in 4 weeks to see if we should add t3 in...

[Chickenlady2009]

Sorry you're feeling so awful. I had the same symptoms when I was under medicated. I have hypothyroidism but not Addison's.

Do you have your blood test results? If you do post them on here. Type result and the range in parentheses (Look at other people's posts to see how it is done).

The people on this site are extremely knowledgeable and can interpret your test results. They will also tell you what tests you need.

They can also advise you on how to get your test results if you don't have them and live in the UK.

Levothyroxine takes TWO WEEKS before you feel the effects, and six weeks to give an accurate blood test. So I doubt the levo is giving you the symptoms.

[Peanut31]

Hi

25mcg of Levothyroxine is normally prescribed to elderly patients or people with heart conditions.

If those don’t apply to you, then you should of been started on 50mcg of Levothyroxine. 25mcg dosage can often make patients feel worse.

Normally bloods are taken 6 weeks after starting your dosage, and then an increase of 25mcg is given each time.

That process is repeated until your thyroid results are within range and most importantly you feel better.

When we talk about ranges we don’t mean the NHS ranges, those can still leave patients feeling awful.

We recommend your ranges should be:

TSH is 1 or below and T3, T4 are the upper figures of the range.

It’s too early to add T3 to your 25mcg of Levothyroxine, you need to increase your Levothyroxine and ideally get your TSH to 1 or below to see how your T3 results are responding. This is the process I’m currently doing.

Thyroid blood tests should be TSH, T3 & T4, just testing TSH, which most GP’s only do, is no good as you need the whole thyroid picture.

Thyroid bloods should be taken as early as possible in the morning no later than 9am.

No eating, drink water and don’t take your Levothyroxine before hand. Why? Well your TSH is always higher in the morning this help us thyroid suffers obtain a much needed increase in our dosage.

No need to mention this to the nurse or GP or Endocrinologist, it’s a tip us thyroid suffers pass on here.

Vitamin levels play an important role in the thyroid, test vitamin D, B12, iron and Ferritin.

Make sure you obtain copies of your blood results including ranges, you are entitled to them by law. Once you have them post them on here and the experts can offer you advice.

Best wishes

Peanut31

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Essential to have good levels of vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 so that body can utilise thyroid hormones

If these have not been tested ask GP to do so

Presumably you have Hashimoto's also called autoimmune thyroid disease diagnosed by high thyroid antibodies.

Low vitamin levels are extremely common.

Obviously with Addison's it may mean starting on low dose and increasing slowly

[FancyPants54]

I was started on 25 every other day and left like that for months. It's not good. I too felt grim. I have taken control now and am increasing my meds in line with testing and timings learnt from this web site and books. I am now settled on 75mcg a day and actually, 6 weeks into that dose, I'm feeling a bit better (I hope I don't tempt fate). All dose changes for me are hard and leave me feeling worse for 3 weeks. To get from 50 to 75 I had to do three weeks on 50/75 on alternate days before I could move up to 75 a day. Slowly, slowly. You will need good levels of cortisol to cope with the demand of thyroid meds too. I think you just have to be resigned to feeling worse for a bit. The aim is to feel better in the end.