Hi everyone.
Asking for advice again. I have now been increased to 100mg of T4 and the doctor has given me a prescription for a 100mg tablet rather than 25mg x 4 per day (mercury pharma) that I usually have.
The chemist are aware I can’t have Teva (felt awful when they changed me to this) and wanted to dispense Almus Actavis as MP don’t do a 100 my dose apparently. Should I change or should I stick to 4 tablets per day?
Thank you again for always being there
Best wishes to all
Lisa
If you've found your Mercury suits you - I wouldn't change. Otherwise it is another 'exercise' to know and to find out if the new one will work as well.
Thank you Shaw’s. I was wondering whether to try another one as I still have joint pain on a regular basis which now I have increased my dose, the pain has got worse so I’m wondering if it’s the medication and not my hypothyroidism?
I think you have to check FT4 and FT3 - if your T3 isn't high enough we will have symptoms. You might fare even better with a T3/T4 combination but I know NHS will not consider T3 at present. Excerpt:-
For some people, hypothyroidism can contribute to joint and muscle problems.
Specifically, hypothyroidism may lead to:
Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness, especially in the shoulders and hips
Joint pain and stiffness
welling of the small joints in the hands and feet
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Reducing pain
Although common over-the-counter pain relievers such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen can help, adequate thyroid hormone replacement is the primary treatment and often helps dramatically. (my emphasis).
Mercury Pharma produce levothyroxine in 25, 50 and 100 microgram tablets. If your pharmacy is saying otherwise, I suspect that it is Boots. Almus is only available in 50 and 100 microgram tablets. So, when someone needs a 25 microgram tablet, they have to supply another make and, at least some of the time, they supply Mercury Pharma.
To say that Mercury Pharma do not do a 100 microgram dose is at best being economical with the truth - possibly out of ignorance, at worst an outright lie.
In the UK, levothyroxine is always considered in micrograms (mcg) - not milligrams (mg) 
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dropbox.com/s/q00vyt5703f4u...
Thank you helvella. Apologies I always type the mg instead of mcg. That’s very interesting that they told me that. So if I have to go up to 125 mcg I’d probably get MP again!
You can alternate to get the right dose.
I stick to 50mcg tablets so that if my dose needs adjusting I can simply alternate between 100 one day and then 150 the next day to average 125mcg daily. Actually, I take around 114mcg daily which is a calculation spread over the week with a mixture of 100 and 150mcg made up from a selection of 50mcg tablets.
For example, if you needed only 25mcg daily, you could take 50mcg one day and nothing the next day and then 50 mcg the next day and nothing the next and so on.
That way, I can stick to the type of levothyroxine that suits me and not swap between formulations.
Two reasons always to get the same brand-you know you are happy with the fillers and potency can vary slightly.
Having said that I was on MP for many years and I was always given 25's, when I queried it pharmacy had suggested it when I said I wanted to stick with one brand as it had 25's. Fairly recently I got a pang of conscience when I found the pricing as the 100's worked out cheaper so I had 100's added to my prescription buy then realised I needed to use up some of the 25's as well so after a couple of weeks using 100's I then found I wasn't feeling as well on them as the 25's so testing again I found that 4x25 wasn't the same as 1x100 so I would stick with getting all 25's. Tablets are manufactured to a tolerance of 5% so it seemed that would explain why I was feeling different going on to use 100 tablets. I am though very sensitive to small differences.
Mercury Pharma brand
Mercury Pharma levothyroxine in short supply again
Mercury pharma brand hard to source
Anyone else know a similar equivalent brand to Mercury Pharma?
