Starting T3 tomorrow..any hints or tips?

Hi all

After years of trying, I am finally starting t3 tomorrow. Is there anything to watch out for or a certain way I should be taking it?

Thank you

[NWA6]

Ooo I’d need ALot more info 🤗

[greygoose]

Take it just as you would take levo: empty stomach and all that. When you take it is entirely up to you, what is best/more convenient for you.

I take it you know to start low and increase slowly?

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

Hi, yes I am going to start with 5mcg I read somewhere about taking your pulse, is this something I should be doing do you know? Thank you

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

I'm not sure how helpful that is. It's not something I've ever done. I've always had a rapid pulse whether I'm under or over-medicated. Is your pulse slow at the moment?

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

Not that I know of I think i'll just judge on how I feel. Do you take t3? How did you feel when you first started it? I'm a bit apprehensive!

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

I don't think I felt anything, but I can't really remember. It was a long time ago, and I was rather confused at the time. I'm sure you'll be fine!

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

thank you!

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

You're welcome.

[Hidden]

Hi my tips are don’t worry if you feel hyper T3 has a half life of a day so it clears quickly so you can adjust the dose quickly and it takes about 5 hours to get into your cells so think about timing of dose for your lifestyle/day. Good luck!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

thank you!

[Murphysmum]

I started in T3 not long ago and two days in felt great. However, by the end of day 3 I was getting the most severe headaches.

I tried to stick it out for a few days as I knew it was a fairly common side effect but eventually stopped taking it on around day 7!

Thanks to the “low n slow” advice on here, I started quartering my tablets ( maybe a little too cautious!) and did four days on that, and increased by a quarter until I hit the full dose again.

I only seem to need 10mcg a day so maybe I was just extra sensitive but I felt find that way and had no issues.

Good luck - it’s a revelation 😉

[Merlio18 in reply to Murphysmum]

Hi can I ask what brand you were on and what meds are you taking now I have also experienced this with certain brands and I am extra sensitive too

[crimple]

After 10 years on levo 100mcgm and still having lots of symptoms but a suppressed TSH, I did bloods which showed T4 around 14.0(12-22) and T3 around 4.3 ( 3.9-6.8) so after reading on here decided I was a poor converter.

I managed to obtain Greek T3 and started with quarter of 25mcgm tablet and checked my levels, T3 had gone up but was still below 5 so after 4 months I increased to 2 quarters (12.5mcgm) but didn't feel good. T3 was then over range at about 9, so I went back to quarter tablet and stayed on that for a full year. Then symptoms started to come back and after obtaining German T3 20mcgm tablets I started on half tablet and after bloods increased to 15mcgm. I take the 10 in the morning with my levo and the 5mcgm in afternoon about 3pm.

I think after so long being deprived of sufficient T3 it took a long time for my body to adjust to having a decent amount. Last bloods showed T3 at 6.3 I might try taking all the T3 in one go at some point, I don't always remember the afternoon dose.

Everyone is different, but you have to go by how you feel and also it is very useful to do your own blood tests. I use medichecks so I know what my T3 levels are.

[Hashihouseman]

As people have said, everyone is different! But for what it’s worth, in my experience T3 deserves caution and respect particularly at the start. I would never take 5 µg in one go and I have been taking it for years. 5 µg is my maintenance dose which I take split into three during the course of the night, going to bed whenever I wake up during the night and first thing in the morning. This way I don’t get any of the ups and downs and the effect seems to last all day and when I take the going to bed dose I fall asleep almost instantly, as if that’s what my body is waiting for to help with sleep. I noticed many people who are taking it and describe their regime here seem to favour some kind of split dosing with a morning and late afternoon dose. That just doesn’t work for me and I think it is more natural to feel an afternoon lull in our metabolism, taking T3 to be up and on it morning noon and night seems wrong, I think this medication is best taken in a way which mimics our natural circadian rhythm is so finding that in relation to your normal patterns may be a Reasonable start.

[Hidden]

Hello Abigail, I've been on it about five months. My experience is that you need to start low and go slow and test your T4 and T3 regularly as the additional T3 will make big differences to your levels. I felt good at first and then exhausted, and then had to change the amount of T3 and T4 I was taking. Found it really helpful to get dosing advice from this site based on my bloods. It's not been an instant fix for me but certainly helped a lot. After five months I've found I need to keep my T4 well in range as well as having T3 over about 60% to feel better. I ended up cutting my 5mcg T3 pills in half and spread the dose out to have less of an unpleasant high. Good luck it may take a bit of experimentation. But worth it for me.

Michael

[Eyes-wide-shut]

Thank you for your post. I have just started T3 (beginning April) with 10 mcg dose. I felt better for the first 2 weeks but since then my ‘anxiety’ has returned. I’ve started splitting the 10 in half and been a bit inconsistent but basically am taking it slowly and at about 6:00 am each day. I take my T4 at night, always have and Endo told me not to take T3 then, but I’m giving it a go this weekend as I feel instinctively it will suit me better - no logic just my gut feeling.

My pulse has significantly increased since adding T3. Mine was low - 52-62 when resting. It’s now more like 76-80 at rest. My blood pressure hasn’t really changed tho.

Symptom-wise I wish I could say adding T3 has been the answer. I have improved but I’m not back to how I have been at other times. I’m going to keep persevering with T3 and am also trying to raise my Vit D and B12, both low in range. Best of luck and I wish you well 🙏

[HMBradley53]

I am taking 5 mg in the morning and 5 innthe afternoon. I see my PCP beginning of June but Im still so fatigued. Maybe im not taking enough so on Staurday i was going to cut a 5mg in half and addits it too my doses and see how I feel with that. I take my levo at 2am when I get up for work so by the time I have a coffee its 3am. Im not sure if its because I am awake from 2am to 7pm when I go to bed being a very long day for me so maybe I need 5 mg in between. I havent had any side effects to speak of just start slow.

[Hidden in reply to HMBradley53]

Hi there, adding T3 will push down your TSH which will signal your thyroid to decrease any T4 your thyroid was still producing. This in turn can leave less T4 in your tissue even on the same dose of levothyroxine. I find that to relieve fatigue I need to keep T4 in range (either because it is in someway biologically active or to provide a constant baseline level to covert to T3). Adding more T3 without adjusting levothyroxine pushes my T4 further down and leaves me exhausted. Youmight want to keep an eye on T4 levels in your next test. It’s a real case of experimenting and finding your balance.

Michael

[mmthyroid]

I started six month ago. I took 10 mcg two hours before I got out of bed along with my T4. Within half an hour of my first dose, I felt more sensation in my feet and that first day my brain fog started to lift. I started right at 20 mcg. 10 in the morning and 10 in the late afternoon. I always make sure not to eat or drink anything but water two hours before and one hour afterwards. I dropped my T4 from 112.5 to 75 a few weeks after I started T3

[FancyPants54]

Having had unpleasant experiences, I would cut that 5mcg in half and start with 2.5 for a few days. Just to let your body get the idea of what's coming.

[Lovecake]

Hello abigailfrances

I started adding T3 last June. My endo said reduce T4 from 100 to 75 and add 15mcg of T3.

I started reducing the T4 2 weeks before I took any T3. Then I took 5mcg of T3 with my levo dose and 5mcg of T3 about 6hrs later.

I have tried the full 15mcg of T3 a couple of times. I got a fuzzy headache, so at present I don’t feel I need it.

The first 3 weeks I took the T3 I felt amazing. Didn’t even have issue in the heatwave that we had.

Then it calmed down and I felt ok but not amazing. Still a big improvement.

I have made sure that I get and keep all my vitamins and minerals optimal (as per SeasideSusie). If they dip then I don’t feel so great.

I now take 5mcg with my levo an hour before lunch. Then 5mcg right before I sleep.

This suits me as I’ve suffered with migraines for years now and taking levo put me into a worse migraine if I woke up with a bad head. So I leave the mornings free for migraine meds if needed.

I rarely need to take any migraine meds (since about Christmas time). 🥳

But I won’t change my timing for the levo and T3 - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - as they say.

I am feeling the best I’ve felt in years! I do home blood tests to make sure all is well.

I do have days where I don’t feel so good, but sometimes, I have to stand still and just enjoy the “I’m actually feeling good” for a few minutes.

It might take a fair bit of effort, and cost a bit more to take good vitamins and eat good food. But for me, worth it.

And to top it all - all being well - I’m going to be a grandma in November (allowed to tell people now) 😎☺️😍

And I actually feel I will be able to cope when my daughter needs me.

Take care, good luck, let us know how you get on ☺️

[dizzy864]

Hi, I just wanted to add something positive in to the mix! I was finally prescribed 20 mcg of lio a day after not being completely well on levo for about 8 years. I took it all at once in the morning. I found I was absolutely great until about 2 o'clock, then I started to run down. An hour or so later I was as bad as I was before I went on it. It was the same for a few years. I was never told and to be honest never thought to split the tablet. I did not want to lose what I had in the mornings! It took another three years or so before I was prescribed two further 20 mcg tablets a day. For three months I had my life back. I put all the years of thyroid problems behind me. Then I had a follow up endo appointment and the arguments started. I needed to stop all the lio immediately without any addition of levo!! Lio had gone up in price and no one is supposed to need it. I did continue on it and lost the two stone I had gained. It really was life changing for me.

My advice would be to split the dose over the course of the day. Personally it was not about starting small - I needed it and I had absolutely no problems at all getting used to it - either the original dose or the increase.

You should, however be aware that at some stage your TSH will probably become suppressed. I've read that for some, it's soon after starting Lio and for some it's when their meds become optimum.

I've had a lot of problems over the past four years with being told I am severely over medicated because my TSH is very low when in fact it is suppressed and will always be so.

I've now become severely under medicated and in the process of sorting that with more levo due to a more knowledgeable gp.

Good luck

[JAmanda]

I was told to reduce my levo from 100 to 75 and take 10 lio all at once. After a month I couldnt stand the headaches, constipation, ear neck aches, locked jaw so experimented doing 50 levo/20 lio - again all at once. Symptoms went and also aches in hips and cramps in feet. But if I take that two or three days in a row, I get the headache and earache back - so I alternate with a day of 100 levo or just the lio. Just did bloods today. Not sure how much I can admit to my Endo as he warned me not to experiment! But there’s only so much pain and discomfort I can stand! Other than a small buzz five hours after I take the meds I don’t feel the lio is unpleasant or scary. No idea what the bloods will reveal but I desperately want to stay on the lio if only to have regular BMs. Oh and my dry/weepy eyes are much better. I lose track of the zillions of symptoms.