Coming off my meds Levothyroxine completely

[uhirani]

I want to stop taking my 100mg of Levothyroxine which i have been taking for almost 20 years now. Has anyone else done or considered coming off their medication - would like to know if it's worked for you and how you did.

[phronsias]

Hi

May I ask what you intend replacing 100mg of Levothyroxine with?

Regards

Frank

[uhirani in reply to phronsias]

Nothing just wondering if anyone has come off their meds and if at all it's possible

[Haze1975 in reply to uhirani]

I don’t think you should come of it without medical advice. Why do you take 100mg of levothyroxine. Some people are independent on it and can’t live without it.

[Naomi8]

if you have an underactive thyroid & you stop taking your medication,you put yourself at risk of arteriosclerosis & high cholesterol,leading to a high risk of stroke & heart attack.

Why not post your latest blood test results for expert advice on this forum before taking this potentially drastic step.

[shaws Administrator]

If you've been diagnosed as being hypothyroid and taking replacement hormones you cannot stop without a replacement in place.

If you are hypo and stop taking replacement hormones you will, very gradually, become very ill and may go into a myxedema coma which can be fatal.

Hypothyroidism is classed as a serious autoimmune condition and without replacement thyroid horones we die. Our heart and brain need the most thyroid hormones.

If you have never felt well adding some T3 to your T4 might work wonders. They are now not prescribed in the NHS for T3 but you can source your own.

Maybe you've not had an updated blood test and if you can afford a private one I will give you a list of three labs who will do these for you. Medichecks, Blue Horizon and Thriva are the labs. These are pin-prick tests.

All blood tests for thyroid hormones have to be at the earliest possible, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose and test and take afterwards.

The labs do home pin-prick tests but can make arrangement if you want blood drawn.

You need TSH, T4, T3, Free T4 Free T3 and thyroid antibodies. (TSH around 1or lower, FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of the ranges).

GP should test B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate - everything has to be optimum.

I am guessing that when you have a blood test the doctor tells you that they are 'normal'. Normal isn't sufficient, we need optimum and a TSH and T4 isn't informative enough when we still don't feel well and are symptomatic. I shall give you a list of clinical symptoms and you will see just how many there are:-

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

[uhirani in reply to shaws]

That's really interesting thankyou for taking the time to explain in detail so much I hadn't considered.

[shaws Administrator in reply to uhirani]

If you read posts frequently your knowledge will expand - everyone - including myself found that we recovered when we read 'tips' and learned what doctors and endocrinologists do not appear to know in these 'modern times'. Before the introduction of levo and blood tests we were diagnosed upon our clinical symptoms alone and given a trial of NDT (natural dessicated thyroid hormones) which is still popular today but withdrawn from the NHS as they did T3 a short time ago.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

As hypothyroidism is a serious condition and once diagnosed we don't pay for any other prescriptions for any other conditions.