Eltroxin side effects?

[Baker78]

Hi, just hoping to get some advice or light shed on my situation! I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism 8 years ago! I'm on 50mcg of eltroxin, Monday - Friday & 25mcg in Saturday & Sunday! This dose was just changed by endocrine clinic in hospital about 6 months ago! Having some awful symptoms since October, like tremors at times, muscle twitching, burning pains at times & lately a very heavy feeling on my chest & shortness of breath which my doctor sent me into hospital to have checked & awful pains in my legs at times! But they're telling me my thyroid levels are fine, & all blood work fine except for high cholesterol which has been high on & off for over 5 years now! I'm not overweight, I'm just over 8 stone so not due to that, it runs in my family! & also my white blood cell count slightly low in more than 1 blood test now since last year! I'm just sick of feeling sick, tired, weak, cold on the bad days! Occasionally I have the odd good day which is fantastic & makes me so upset when I start to feel so ill again! Cannot find a good doctor that will look into things for me & sick of wasting money I don't have! I live in Dublin, Ireland & no doctor I've asked will check T3! They all say there's no need to! I have 3 children & need my health issues sorted for them! Sorry for the rant but just need some good advice from people who understand what it's like struggling with this!

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

You are on a very low dose of Levo, less than a starter dose. Your 50mcg Mon-Fri plus 25mcg at weekends gives a total of 300mcg per week, averaging 43 mcg daily. A normal starter dose is 50mcg daily.

What are your last average test results, can you please post them with their reference ranges.

As for testing FT3, I would contact Blue Horizon to see if they offer the thyroid panel (don't do FT3 on it's own, it needs to be done with TSH and FT4) in your area. They mention on their website about using Medlab in Dublin.

privatebloodtests.ie

You could ask Medichecks too

medichecks.com/blood-tests-...

[Baker78 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks so much for that advice. Will definitely be looking into that. I have to collect my latest blood results printout from my gp tomorrow, so I'll post up my results then.👍

[44670 in reply to Baker78]

Hi Baker78, google ‘letsgetchecked’ they do thyroid testing in Dublin.

[Baker78 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Sorry for taking so long to get back with my results! I haven't been feeling well at all lately & feeling very down & fed up of feeling unwell! My free t4 was 17.4 & TSH 1.76 in last blood test which was 2 wks ago! Doctor told me this was normal! I would really appreciate feed back on this result. Thanks in advance.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Baker78]

If you can add the reference ranges for those results, accurate comment can be made (ranges vary from lab to lab).

Your TSH isn't bad and I can understand why you were told this was normal as it will ble in range. However, when on Levo only, the aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or lower with FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of their ranges if that is where you feel well. So we need to see where in range your FT4 lies and, as mentioned, it's essential to get FT3 tested at the same time as the others to see how well you are converting T4 to T3. Low T3 causes symptoms.

You could also get vitamins and minerals checked - Vit D, B12, Folate, Ferritin - as low levels of these cause their own symptoms, and they need to be optimal for thyroid hormone to work properly.

[Baker78 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks for advice SeasideSusie. Range for Free T4 is 12.0 - 22.0 & for TSH it's 0.27 - 4.20. But even though it says my thyroid levels are fine I'm still not feeling great most of the time! I'll have to send off my own bloods to get checked properly as any gp's I've asked over the years say they dont need to check T3 because the tsh & t4 levels are more reliable to go by! My vitamin b12, ferritin & folate are all within Range! They didn't check my vit D! The things that were off were my cholesterol is 6.0 & my white blood cell count slightly low at 3.6 when range is 3.9 - 11.1 & Mean plt volume 7.3 when range is 7.4 - 10! My alk phosphatase is 31, range 35-105 & my estimated GFR is 83 when it should be greater than 90! Sorry, I don't mean to bombard you with my blood results but I don't understand what it all means & doctor told me everything was fine except my white blood cell count! Any help would be much appreciated. ☺

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Baker78]

TSH: 1.76 (0.27-4.20)

FT4: 17.4 (12-22)

Your TSH is in range and your FT4 is 54% through range, which is why you're being told they're normal. However, these results suggest you need an increase in your dose of Levo.

Dr Toft, past president of the British Thyroid Association and leading endocrinologist, states in Pulse Magazine (the magazine for doctors):

"The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range - 0.2-0.5mU/l. In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l. Most patients will feel well in that circumstance. But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l. This 'exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism' is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l).*"

*He recently confirmed, during a public meeting, that this applies to Free T3 as well as Total T3. You can obtain a copy of the article by emailing Dionne at

[e-mail]

print it and highlight question 6 to show your doctor.

Use this information to support your request for an increase in your Levo. Retest after 6-8 weeks and it will be important to include FT3 at the same time to see how well you are converting. If your GP can't get it done then do a private thyroid panel to include TSH, FT4 and FT3.

My vitamin b12, ferritin & folate are all within Range!

Where in range are they? They need to be optimal. Can you post the result, range and unit of measurement for B12.

They didn't check my vit D!

Often this is refused, the NHS thinks it's an expensive test but it's important. You can do this with a private fingerprick blood spot test with an NHS lab which offers this test to the general public:

vitamindtest.org.uk/

Cost is £29.

Cholesterol is possibly high due to being undermedicated.

my white blood cell count slightly low at 3.6 when range is 3.9 - 11.1 & Mean plt volume 7.3 when range is 7.4 - 10! My alk phosphatase is 31, range 35-105 & my estimated GFR is 83 when it should be greater than 90!

I'm afraid I can't tell you what these results mean. You can check what test results mean here

labtestsonline.org.uk/

Put the name of the test in the search box.

[Bugbitten]

Hi, I am in Dublin and if you message me I can recommend a GP in the city centre that will test for T3. They're expensive but worth it. He agreed to increase my dosage when my consultant wouldn't and I had a great few months recently. Now I'm slightly overmedicated. It's hard to strike a balance. Also my hair continues to thin no matter what dose and he has agreed that if there's no improvement soon to look into alternative thyroid meds even though he admits to not knowing much about them. I am happy to have found a GP who is willing to listen

[Nessynu]

Hi Baker78. I'm in Dublin too and the doc that you want is Dr Neville Wilson(The Leinster Clinic) He's great but getting an appointment takes about 8 weeks! Hope this helps.