I would be grateful for opinions as to why my private endo has decided to add 25mcg of levothyroxine to my current 2 grains of NDT. Their opinion was that my T3 is now ‘optimal’ though I still feel sluggish, low pulse, fairly normal temperature, weight gain, memory still failing etc etc. There has been improvement, but I am longing for some weight loss. Or even for it to stop going up!
Meeting up with endo to discuss will cost more money, so I am wondering if anyone here thinks their decision is a good idea and whether something else might be more beneficial, before I tackle them. I have recently begun taking oestrogen via a transdermal patch which has not made an awful lot of difference to the results.
Really grateful for help so far.
Icicles
I assume your endo thinks our FT4 is too low and wants to see it higher?
Does your endo know that taking NDT usually lowers FT4 as well as TSH?
I wouldn't say your FT3 is optimal, it's 54% through range, most of us need it in the upper quarter to feel well.
The symptoms you describe tell you that you're not optimally medicated.
Whose decision was it to use NDT? I take a combination of Levo plus T3, that gives a greater degree of flexibility in the individual doses rather than the fixed dose of NDT. From experimenting and tweaking doses over many, many months, I have found that my levels are best for me when both FT4 and FT3 are around 75%. Not everyone needs FT4 that high, but some of us do.
Thank you SeasideSusie, I thought that too. I was grateful to be given a trial of NDT after being ignored by GP for so long. Now that I am nearly in the upper range, it is frustrating to be held at current dose and have T4 added. I was wondering whether it might be time to go it alone. It’s so expensive!!!!! What difference would having 25mcg more T4 swishing around if it doesn’t translate into increased T3? Would having more T4 begin to affect T3 levels even if it does look like I don’t convert much of it? My endo wants me to test again in a couple of months or so. It feels like such a long time if it’s not going well!
Icicles
I can't answer properly your question. We are all so different, with differing needs. I tried NDT many years ago and it didn't do it for me, but I now realise that way back then my nutrient levels weren't tested so that may have had something to do with it.
Adding 25mcg Levo to your NDT should increase your FT4. If you have some natural T4:T3 conversion then your FT3 should rise as well. Looking back at your other posts, you've never had a set of results where TSH is down to 1 or below which would show your normal conversion of T4 to T3 if both FT4 and FT3 are tested at the same time. There's a lot of trial and error involved when trying to find the right dose of thyroid hormone.
I've just looked at this previous post healthunlocked.com/thyroidu... and will ignore the Medichecks results because you said about the large dose of Biotin. From the other results posted in the picture, none of your nutrient levels are optimal. Is anything being done about these? They need to be optimal for any thyroid hormone to work properly.
I take Ferrous Fumarate 210mg
Magnesium Citrate 400mg
Magnesium Bisglycinate 500mg
K2 MK-7 natural natto 100mcg
Vit C 1000mg
Vit B12 (methylcobalamin) 1000mcg sublingual
Selenium 200mcg
Vit D 4000 IU
All Daily since April/May after reading about supplements and considering my results. Mostly reading your posts, SeasideSusie. I thought that I would give it til say October and test again.
I ditched the Biotin. Thank you for looking at this for me, I do appreciate al, the help you have been already (albeit without you knowing)
You might change the B12 for a vitamin B complex with folate in rather than folic acid. This would keep all B vitamins higher, including B12
But remember to stop taking 3-5 days before blood tests as it contains biotin
When did you last test vitamin D?
It's trial and error what dose each person needs. Once you Improve level, very likely you will need on going maintenance dose to keep it there. Retesting twice yearly via vitamindtest.org.uk