So many posts recently but i feel like I’ve just regressed 12 months.
Ok so, having titrated up to 200mcg levo to try to raise T3, it was too much and I reduced to 175 around 4 weeks ago.
Then consultant allowed me to trial T3 about a 10 days ago. So I was taking 2x 5mcg T3 and 125mcg levo.
Couldn’t tolerate the T3 - severe headaches, some chest pain, horrible feeling. However, my heavy limb feeling disappeared immediately. I had a few days off, tried again but again, severe headache etc, so stopped again and returned to 175 levo.
So since Saturday I have been back on 175mcg levo but I feel the same way as I did about a year ago when I was severely under medicated. I’m shaky, weak, feel like I’m recovering from flu or something, really weak and woozy and like I’m in a bubble. The really heavy feeling in my limbs has returned. Also having skipped heart beats and the ache at the base of my skull. All symptoms that had gone away months ago.
My intention is to get settled again, check bloods on 175 and see how they are, including vits n mins and re try the T3 at some point.
Whilst I am really disappointed that I can’t just push through the T3 side effects just now I am wondering whether in a way this is a good sign? I was convinced that because of the way my thyroid “journey” has gone that T3 was what my body needed. The increase in levo was enough to clear most of my symptoms but the weak muscles and brain fog remained.
In the meantime, why the hell am I feeling so bad? I feel horrendous. Does this show I needed the T3 and now that I’ve taken it away I’m feeling much worse? I can’t understand it.
Should I take heart from the fact that it did clear the muscle weakness almost immediately? Is that what I should expect from it and maybe if I can get other things sorted, next time I try it might be more successful?
Anyone have any ideas? I’m really worried I’ve kicked off a kind of a flare or crash. Do I take a few weeks to let the levo settle or I my system really missing the T3 and I should add in a teeny bit?
Thank you as always for the brilliant advice 😊
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Murphysmum
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I think it’s hard to guess where your ft3 was before you added the t3 in based on this result. If your ft3 was still reasonably high it could be that your ft3 went a bit too high on the added t3 and you were sensitive to that. Maybe also trying a different brand of t3 might make you react differently. It’s not something that comes up on here like brands of Levo but it might be (I think I may have experienced adverse reaction to trying t3 initially, which was a different brand to the one I’m on now).
I take 3/4 of 25mcg of t3 single dose with Levo and even reducing by 1/4 I feel it on day one. My symptoms are different: I’m tired, brain-fogged and not quite with it and I have palps. It sounds like your body’s got used to the added t3 and is reacting to the reduction. Not sure how long this adjustment may need, I continued for 3 weeks on the 1/2 tab but never felt it evened out so I went back to 3/4.
I can't give you any advice. But I can at least sympathise. I too had added some T3 and for a while felt much better. But then I developed atrial fibrillation and a resting pulse of 95-100. I cut my 12.5 dose in half, but it made no difference. Today I have not taken the remaining 6.25 and am reliant on the 125 Levo. I feel rough today. I've had anxiety, panic, nausea and eyes that seem to be peering out through fog and lagging my brain.
So I guess what you are feeling is the sudden withdrawal symptoms, as am I. Not fun. But personally I have to get my heart rate down and stabilised so I have to try this.
Me too. I know how hopeless you feel about it. I am hoping to get settled again and then review my iron. If I have a problem, it will be with iron I think.
I've been struggling to get my ferritin up for years. I had made it to a half reasonable level and then suffered 6 months of almost continuous bleeding on my HRT so I guess that has hammered me again. The lovely nurse at the surgery ran me my iron panel last Friday even though the GP didn't request it. I just have to find time to make an appointment and go and talk to him and pick up the results.
I'm hoping to goodness my heart settles. But for now I'm getting on with some gentle housework and I'm feeling a bit better for it.
Well, I didn’t get past mid morning today. I was in such a state. Anxiety awful. Heart symptoms much worse. Hissing in ears worse. So it isn’t the T3 to blame. I took 6.25 and felt better within the hour. My BP dropped and my anxiety melt d away.
We all need T3 - whether we get it from converting T4 to T3 or whether we take it as a supplement. Perhaps you’re doing a little bit of both - especially when you taking T3 supplements. Perhaps I’m stating the obvious .
One idea is to take selenium . Another idea is to add enzymes proteolytic enzyme‘s and digestive enzymes. It’s worth an experiment to see where you are after adding these . Any one of these three may help with the conversion process.
I personally take all three and I also take NDT - which includes T3.
These are ideas are worth considering.
Try adding these things one at a time so you’ll know which one is working. Selenium would be my first choice.
jgelliss FancyPants54 Hidden and SlowDragon and greygoose too as your help has been invaluable 😉, I have just received an email from the consultant saying that he thinks the symptoms are just coincidental, not thyroid related. (I know this is not the case). He advised that I should reduce my levo to 100mcg and keep the t3 dose at 5x2 mcg.
I am still not right having stopped the T3 on Saturday, still having palpitations, some chest pain and feeling just really under medicated, tired and wobbly.
I’m game for trying the T3 again but not whilst I feel so unstable. Saying that, I’m not sure why I’m unstable... see above posts!
Help!! I can’t drop 75mcg at one go, I don’t feel right as it is but if I drop it more slowly the T3 May have the same effect as before.
Have you had your adrenals /Cortisol levels via 24 hour tested ? DHEA-S via BW . Meantime you may want to support your adrenals with Vitamin "D" /K2 , Iron if you test low , B-Complex , B-12/folate , Vitamin "C", Celtic Sea Salt for electrolytes/adrenals . You might wan to go coffee ,sugar , Gluten , Dairy .free and see if that works well for you .
You could try taking one antihistamine tablet one hour before you take T3 (on its own) and if you don't have a reaction, it maybe the fillers/binders in the T3 that are affecting you and you'd need to try another make of T3 and ask pharmacist is there another T3 Endo could prescribe . You can take levothyroxine a couple of hours later.
I am assuming that you didn't have a problem with the levo you took?
So, how did you feel on that dose? Did you have the headaches, etc.? Because your T3 is pretty high, there. So, if it were the T3 itself causing the headaches, etc. you would have had them at the time of these results. I take it you didn't. So, it rather looks like the fillers in the tablets causing these symptoms, in which case, shaws' idea of an antihistamine is a good one.
OR
You are now under-medicated. In total, your T4 has been reduced by 75 mcg. That will have lowered your FT3. You've replaced it with 10 mcg T3. Given that 5 mcg T3 is usually taken to equal 25 mcg T4, You are now under-replaced, and your FT3 is now going to be lower than 6.54. If you need your FT3 up that high, then you are going to feel the difference.
It might have been a better idea to start with 5 mcg T3, to replace the 25 mcg by which you'd already reduced your dose. Or, just reduce by 25 mcg, making your dose 150 mcg levo plus 10 mcg T3. And, if you wanted to reduce your dose further, stay on that dose for six weeks, and if necessary reduce your levo/increase your T3 at that point. If you see what I mean. I'm sure it's nothing that can't be rectified.
Thankyou gg, you clearly don’t suffer from the brain fog any longer as you always seem to manage to pull everything together and come up with a very practical plan!
The antihistamine idea is a great one and the point you make makes it even more interesting.
I may try both options (tho not at the same time obviously, I was a scientist in a past life!)
You might want to try cutting out your T3 pills but taking selenium (Se) supplements since Se is the catalyst for the T4 to T3 conversion in your peripheral organs (esp. the liver). This way you are making the necessary T3 within your own body and it will make as much as it wants rather than forcing too much T3 via a pill. The other thing is to keep an eye on your blood pressure (BP), mine goes through the roof if I over do the T3 (via NDT). I also think the the ringing in the ears is due to too high BP. I take a very small dose of a BP medication and I can tell when it has gone beyond it's peak efficacy by the return of the hissing in my ears.
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