Much as I hate and I’m constantly trying to stop doing it I’m addicted to looking at the online version of the Daily Mail
Anyway, this morning they are running an article about the great T3 price con and its right up there almost at the top of the page. So fingers crossed it helps our case.
I've seen this. I've tried to contact the journalist to point out that Jeremy Hunt was responsible for this. He constantly ignored my letters and those of my MP, always taking the side of the manufacturer.
I could believe that. The cynic in me says you’ll probably discover he has a relative or a friend with an interest in producing T3. We really do need a very determined journalist pushing on our behalf.
I believe there are many consultants who would prescribe T3, but they don't have a 'free will' to do so, otherwise they will end up like Dr S and Dr P by being pilloried for not following stupid guidelines.
Who knows best? The patient who takes the medication, or the prescriber who doesn't have hypothyroidism?
We certainly know the answer to that.
Sadly, we do indeed know the answer to that. Thing is, once they’ve got away with doing this to T3 - where will they strike next.
When you think that thyroid patients can’t get T3 to allow themselves to work and get on with their normal lives - yet that overweight chap who openly admits he is coming back to the U.K. to use the NHS for further obesity treatment and counselling etc etc when he hasn’t worked here and hasn’t even lived in the U.K. for about five years, will likely as not get the extensive and no doubt expensive treatment he wants - that is shocking.
I feel strongly about health tourism because I have a son who now lives in NZ but who was born in and worked in the U.K. for thirty years and who buys travel insurance in case he needs any treatment when he comes home.
Jeremy Hunt! Gets worse - husband arrived back with the paper this morning and said ‘Guess what Ollie (Oliver Heald our local MP who lives in town) is doing?’ I suggested retiring but alas nope - turns out he had heard on the car radio that Ollie is only giving the dreadful Jeremy Hunt his backing to be our next PM!
That news practically put me off my breakfast.
It's about time others spoke up about the disastrous decision for many people who were prescribed T3 and which was withdrawn from them without notice.
It is not a 'fashionable' request as I seem to think many endocrinologists believe. It is the life-giving thyroid hormone that we need in our bodies for us to function, symptom-free and well.
Why isn't the professionals aware of this?
‘Fashionable’ - that reminds me of the endo who when I asked to have my vitamin D tested said it was just fashionable - there’s nothing in it, if I could bring him proof he would do it. Next time I went (with proof) he had cleared off to another job. That was the start of my diy blood testing.
They’ll be saying ‘fashionable’ to want to feel well next. Aren’t we all just so annoying 😉
We women keep 'complaining' but it isn't because the females want to, but HAVE to do in order to try to get treatment which makes us well. We'd get a better response talking to a wall instead of hoping against hope that a doctor will provide the hormones that return us to good health and symptom-free.
I read this as well and couldn’t believe it cos I’m on holiday in Greece right now! I’m on 75mg Levo which seems to work Ok for me apart from tiredness after lunch and feeling down some days. Blood levels seem fine as well ( I do my own tests on Medicheck). Just wonder if it’s worth getting some T3 while I’m here? How much would you take? Do you think it would help? Grey Goose and Seaside Susie any advice?? Thanks
Dlm3557, Without seeing your full blood results, no-one can reasonably answer your question. I suggest you ask your question by starting a new post and include your most recent blood results. It may simply be that you need to tweak your T4 dose rather than add T3. Your FT4 and FT3 results will shed some light on that.
If our blood levels are 'fine' that doesn't mean they are optimal. We need a TSH of 1 or lower and FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of the ranges following the usual routine of the earliest blood draw, fasting (you can drink water) and allow a gap of 24 hours between last dose of thyroid hormones and the test and take it afterwards.
You can go to a local hospital who will do your blood tests while you're in Greece and then post your results for comments.
Many Thanks I’ll do that now
What annoys me most of all is the feeble way we are always portrayed in newspapers and magazines. We always, apparently, have weight gain, crippling fatigue and depression. No one ever mentions that without correct medication, many of us would eventually die. I have no thyroid so obviously I am definitely in need of proper medication but even at my worst, before I was able to get hold of T3, I did not suffer any of those symptoms. I am always too thin, never depressed and not tired. Instead, I ached all over, had endless musculoskeletal issues, poor immune function and frequent infections plus a wealth of other strange happenings that all disappeared when I started T3. Why does no journalist state that the thyroid affects every cell in the body? It is not just to stop us being depressed and tired and fat. Our bodies cannot function correctly without the proper balance of hormones.
Would journalists please note this for future articles ( said just in case one of them has got into our lovely site!)
Exactly. I feel that concentrating on weight gain is a big part of the problem
An awful lot of people who do not have a thyroid problem (doctors included) just seem to think that anyone who is overweight wants to blame it on their thyroid and get drugs as a quick fix to help them lose weight. As long as there is that mentality it will be an upward struggle. As you say, your thyroid affects every single part of your body.
People with normal thyroids just don’t get what it feels like when your body feels like a ten ton truck has driven over it then gone back again for good measure, you feel so tired and ill all you want to do is sleep and the many other symptoms.
I can’t understand why, when the body produces T1, 2, 3 and 4, that doctors, health ministers, NICE, local CCGs etc seem to think that replacing T4 on its own is the answer to everyone’s problems..
Absolutely agree and doctors have become so used to this tired old symphony of “weight gain, depression and fatigue” that they cannot imagine that any other symptoms can be attributed to poor thyroid hormone balance. It always “must be something else” but not easily identified, so out comes the prescription pad for an antidepressant.
I have my thyroid gland but only T3 resolved all symptoms. How they can force people who were well on it and then removed without notice is really inhumane at the very least, never mind the anguish it caused.
If (mainly women) are hypothyroid unexplained weight gain is automatically thought of by doctors that it's due to the patient being 'overweight' that their problems are all due to them unhealthy food or overeating. Little do they know that increased weight is due to hypothyroidism and is one of the main initial symptoms. The patient is automatically deemed to be causing their own problems due to overeating, instead of lack of optimum dose of thyroid hormones
I wonder if the woman discussed in the article will come to regret poking her head above the parapet. By stockpiling T3 from a foreign country and bringing it back to the UK I think she is breaking UK law, which only allows people to bring back sufficient non-controlled drugs for three months use.
And as we have seen on the forum, some people are getting their (posted) T3 or NDT confiscated by customs.
(As an aside, I'd love to know if anyone got their T3/NDT given back, assuming that these people appealed against an incorrect use of the law, but I'm not aware of anyone giving us an update.)
The Mail is usually hammered on this site so good to see it doing something to highlight this ludicrous situation ,whereby two people took advantage of a loophole in generic drug prices to make millions then flogged the business for more millions. But the Mail did not give the history.
We have incompetent Ministers and a sluggish CMA .
We've had good doctors in the past due to the fact they were all trained in clinical symptoms (no blood tests available then) so a trial of NDT was warranted. If it helped relieve symptoms, the patient was hypo and dose increased until patient felt well. They didn't have to 'fit' within a range before being prescribed NDT. Nowadays I doubt any doctor knows any clinical symptoms as they've been directed (in UK) not to diagnose untl TSH reaches 10 and by that time the patient is quite unwell.
Of those medical professionals who have hypothyroidism they may feel good with levo but those who do not will most likely have to have, at the very least, a combination as they couldn't function as doctors.
Yes, you are correct. The threat that they will lose their licence overtakes their conciences when they know full well that patients in the past recovered and were able to live a symptom-free life on NDT and T3 or T4/T3.
Two doctors in mind, Dr Skinner and Dr Peatfield, both trained in the same way. Dr S was a Virologist and Dr Peatfield a GP (I believe) who were trained in the 'old fashioned way', i.e. recognised symptoms. Both doctors were hounded eventually and Dr P resigned his licences due to the stress.
Dr S wouldn't give in and treated his patients who travelled far and wide to see him. Due to that he was called before the GMC several times and each time found not to be doing anything wrong and could continue doing as he was taught. The stress this must have caused him and his staff who were horrified plus all of the patients whose health was restored sent to the GMC testimonials (I think 10,000) at his last hearing which was dismissed. Unfortunately Dr S died a little while later on I think with a heart attack (not 100% sure). His patients/staff were bereft. On one of his blogs he stated that a friend had done a calculation of the 'odds' of appearing before the GMC so many times and I think it was 10,000 to 1.
At least in Scotland at the last Debate re thyroid hormone replacements, it was agreed that if unwell on levo that options could be prescribed.
I doubt that doctors are aware that the TSH is from the pituitary gland and not the thyroid gland. Therefore is not a thyroid hormone. I had to diagnose myself and that was with a TSH of 100. That's probably why T3 restored my health too.
I know how it feels to be very, very hypo but doctors are so poorly trained that they think a TSH below 1 means we're hyPER.
Onwards and upwards Scrumbler as we now know more than the majority of endos or doctors and can help ourselves if able to source the hormones we need.
Daily Mail thyroid article: whole lotta ranting going on
Cost of t3
Times Article about Extortionate Prices of Drugs
Why is the cost of T3 so high for UK ?
Interesting article about depression and treatment with T3
