Strange reactions on German Euthyrox

[ondrej41]

Hi. Before february I've taken Czech Euthyrox-50 with some T3 and was more or less stable and OK on it. Unfortunately, my supplies of Czech T4 were almost run out, so I started new pack of German Euthyrox-100, needing to cut tablets into half and quarters. Coincidentally I planned to increase my T4 by a little, so I started new medication and increased the Euthyrox dose by 5 mcg on average at the same time.

After 2-3 days I began to feel overdosed, very bad, depressed and hot. German Euthyrox seems much stronger. I've never felt so much hyper on Czech Euthyrox previously, even when I had taken significantly higher doses 2-3 years ago. After several days on German Euthyrox I didn't need any T3 and felt very hot and a lot of adrenaline. So I stopped the medications.

I haven't taken any hormones for a week and I still feel not right. I know my symptoms pretty well, the overdose by T4 is very close to hypothyroidism. Except now my skin is good, my stomach works fast, I wake up warm and I'm not physically tired after 5-10 km of walking.

I think it wouldn't be so if my levels of thyroid hormones were low. So I suggest it is overdose by German Euthyrox, but a week has passed and still only little by little everyday improvement, still feeling same symptoms which were started on German Euthyrox. And half-life of T4 is exactly 7 days.

So I want to ask if someone had similar experiences after switching medications, may be even to German Euthyrox, is it common to have adverse effects and what I can do to get rid of it? I also read that in 2018 Merck have made reformulation of Euthyrox and there were 300000 signatures in France against it.

[helvella]

Have you got the leaflets that came with both products?

Have you carefully compared the ingredients?

Prompted by your post, I did a bit of looking around and have just posted a new post:

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[ondrej41 in reply to helvella]

I don't have Czech leaflet, I found it online and it states it has same fillers as German - gelatine, lactose, magnesiumstearat, cornstarch, croscamelose-natrium. The active ingredient is Levothyroxin-Natrium.

I've read a link from your post. They really know that their new medication needs adjustment, which takes time and is not comfortable for millions of people, and still it looks like they don't want to leave us a choice.

I've read Russian forums, many people say that German Euthyrox is much stronger than Russian Euthyrox and that overdosing is felt differently. I suppose it is the same with Czech. Russians and Czechs also state for example that Levo and Euthyrox are not interchangeable and require different dosing managements, like 75 mcg of Levo=100 mcg of Euthyrox.

Personally for me effects of Czech Euthyrox 3 years ago and 3 weeks ago are the same. The problem is that I was carefully managing my dosing with Czech Euthyrox and T3 and now I don't know what to do even having some tablets of Czech Euthyrox left and even if buy it again. I lost my starting point. I don't know if I need to wait until German Euthyrox leave my system (which helped me several times when I was overdosed) or I need to take Czech Euthyrox to replace German (this can potentially lead to even more overdosing). I would say I feel little better everyday without taking Euthyrox, but progress is very slow, it was much qucklier during overdose on Czech medication

[helvella in reply to ondrej41]

I have added to that post - as have others.

The change is from lactose to mannitol and citric acid.

I very much agree that you are in a difficult position. There isn't much you can do other than think it through and make very gentle, careful changes and see how it goes.

[ondrej41 in reply to helvella]

I'm not good at German but there is nothing about mannitol and citric acid in leaflet. But there is still lactose. It's equivalent to Czech leaflet.

[helvella in reply to ondrej41]

I have no answers, I'm afraid.

We do all tend to think that the product will be the same if made by the same company (even if a different factory). You are proving that is a false assumption.

[ondrej41 in reply to helvella]

A lot of people from Russia and Ukraine spend money to order German T4, because Russian is not sufficient for them. But I think it's differently if you need 150 mcg of T4 or 40-50 mcg (my case) to feel optimal

[RedApple in reply to ondrej41]

I notice in your original post that you've gone from 50 tabs to 100 tabs. As there are apparently no difference in the ingredients, maybe the tablet dose is the problem. Perhaps German 50s would be nearer to the Czech 50s. Just a thought.

[ondrej41 in reply to RedApple]

I thought about it too, but leaflets are the same. Unfortunately I don't have access right now to 50 tabs to check. After the news of Merck's new formula approval in EU I'm afraid that even Czech Euthyrox will be too strong and bad for me

[RedApple in reply to ondrej41]

If the ingredients are the same (i.e. specifically lactose instead of mannitol), then it's probably the same formulation as you've been taking, so I would expect 50s tabs to be near enough the same in both Czech and German.

However, splitting the 100s tabs may be giving you different amounts of active ingredient (levo). I recall several years ago, that one UK manufacturer warned against this because the active ingredient may not be distributed evenly in the pill. So for example, one half could have more levo in it than the other half. For some people, this wouldn't matter as it evens out over the days, but some of us are ultra sensitive and just wouldn't feel right.

[ondrej41 in reply to RedApple]

There is a break up split on tablet, so it is assumed you can cut it into halves. I think with T4 it's not so important what you take daily than the whole dose accumulation. I'm sensitive but not that extra 10-20 mcg of T4 will suddenly give me temperature 37,2. And I was taken 10-12 mcg of T3 daily with Czech T4 to keep myself warm and OK enough (T4 needed to be raised), and then after a week on German I'm hyper without any T3. Just strange to me

[RedApple in reply to ondrej41]

The manufacturer that warned against splitting tabs said the break line is there to help with tablet taking, not for splitting the dose itself. Apparently some people have difficulty swallowing a whole tablet and find it easier to take the two halves.

Anyway, hope you get it sorted out

[ondrej41 in reply to RedApple]

Hope too. Somebody wrote me that after switching to German Euthyrox from Russian he changed the dose from 100 to 75 mcg. Maybe that the answer. My dose was lower, so I may felt the difference even more.

[Onezen]

I had the same reaction when taking Euthyrox. I took it for a month before realizing it was the medication. 2 days after switching back to Levothyroxine I was better. It was exactly as you say, symptoms of Hyperthyroidism. Racing heart, revved up feeling, diarrhea, anxiety.