T3 too high?

[JBLOVELL]

Tsh 0.04mIU/L range 0.30. - 4.50

T4 21.8 pmol/L range 10.0 - 22.0

T3 5.2 pmol/L range 3.1 - 6.8

I take 125mcg Levothyroxine 100mcg Levothyroxine on alternate days and 12.5mcg tiromel (split into 2 doses daily.) I have been on this t3 dose for awhile, with the intention of working up to 25mcg.Do you think this will take it too high and what reduction of Levothyroxine should I make?

[humanbean]

Your T4 is 98% of the way through the range.

Your T3 is 57% of the way through the range.

There is no way that your T3 is too high. In fact some people feel at their best when T3 is substantially higher - say, 70% of the way through the range, but it is a personal thing.

There is a discrepancy between your levels of T3 and T4 suggesting that you are not converting terribly well from T4 to T3.

Ideally you would increase your T3 dose by a small amount, and possibly you may need to reduce your T4 level by a small amount.

I take 125mcg Levothyroxine 100mcg Levothyroxine on alternate days

Over two weeks you are taking 7 x 125mcg + 7 x 100mcg Levo. This averages out to 112.5mcg per day.

If you reduce your dose of T4 it would only require a small reduction e.g. over two weeks you could change to taking 5 x 125mcg + 9 x 100mcg which averages out to

109mcg per day.

Having reduced Levo you could then add in a quarter or an eighth of a tablet of T3 every day.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

JBLOVELL

As you are already taking T3, you will have to find the right balance of doses that suits you personally.

Going by my own personal journey of Levo plus T3, I would reduce my Levo to 100mcg every day (a reductionof 12.5mcg daily average). I wouldn't alter my T3 dose at this stage, ride out any symptoms. After, say, a couple of weeks the extra T4 will have started to leave your body so I would increase T3 by 1/4 of a tablet, so daily total 18.75mcg. I would then hold these doses for 8 weeks and retest.

I would suggest that you don't have a goal in mind for what dose of T3 you take. You need what you need and you'll find out in time by tweaking your doses. At one point I got up to 31.25mcg T3 with 100mcg Levo, but once everything settled, including optimal nutrient levels and working on adrenals, I now take 18.75mcg T3 with approx 117mcg Levo and that gives me the hormone levels I need to feel optimal thyroid-wise.

[NWA6]

How do you feel atm? Do you want to increase because you don’t feel well?

Before I was on T3 I tried to ‘over medicate’ with T4 and it just made me feel awful. My T4 got up to 20 (12-22) but the highest recorded T3 I had was 3.9 (3.5-6.5) Luckily I found out that I’m not a great converter so there was never any point in trying to take more T4.

I know it’s said that T4 is inactive and so increasing that shouldn’t have had any real affect (because I don’t convert well) but it did. I don’t know the science behind it but for me I feel that if you don’t convert well something happens, what? I don’t know.

So I’d agree with others. Reduce your T4, see how you feel and then if you need to, increase your t3.