Don’t know where to go from here.. Reducing Levothyroxine - Please help!

[Sarahlouise1980]

Hi, I’m after some advice as I feel I’m in a bit of a pickle!

Can hair loss with heat intolerance and sweating mean I need to reduce my Levothyroxine? I’ve been having hair loss much more than is usual for me since the end of April, coinciding with an intolerance to heat and sweating to the point that my t-shirt is wet simply from making the bed in the morning! This is when it’s not even particularly warm. Constantly throwing open the windows in an effort to cool down! I reduced from 150mcg down to 125mcg at the end of January and my test results after the reduction still show my tsh suppressed at <0.005 (0.38 - 5.33), free T4 16.4 (7.00 - 16.00) and free T3 5.00 (3.8 - 6.00). My doctor has suggested reducing to 112.5mcg which I tried for a few weeks but not long enough to test bloods as I had little appetite. Does anyone have any advice? My ferritin levels and vitamin levels have all been checked and all good. I’m losing my mind, I just want this hair loss to stop!!

[greygoose]

Low TSH does not make you sweat and lose your hair. They could be hypo symptoms or they could be nutritional deficiency symptoms. Your FT4 is quite high, yes - is that really the range? It's very narrow for FT4. But, you need your FT4 high to get your FT3 - the important number - to just about mid-range. If you keep lowering the levo, your FT3 will decrease too, and it's already probably too low for you, and causing symptoms like sweating and losing your hair. You're a rather poor converter, and the solution would probably be to add a little T3 to your levo. But, get your nutrients checked first: vit D, vit B12, folate, ferritin.

[Sarahlouise1980 in reply to greygoose]

Thank you for responding, I just thought seeing as when I reduced to 112.5mcg for a few weeks before the heat intolerance and sweating stopped, that’s why I thought it might help my hair.

[greygoose in reply to Sarahlouise1980]

I understand your reasoning. But, probably not. Could make things a lot worse.

[Jazzw]

“My ferritin levels and vitamin levels have all been checked and all good.”

Ah, but what were the actual results? In range does not mean “all good”—at least, not necessarily.

Hair loss can often be connected to a ferritin level of less than 70 and/or deficiency in B vitamins.

It certainly doesn’t look to me that reducing your thyroxine dose would improve matters. You aren’t over-replaced according to those figures. A suppressed TSH doesn’t mean anything.

[Sarahlouise1980 in reply to Jazzw]

Thank you for responding! The only thing is when I reduced to 112.5mcg for a few weeks the heat intolerance and sweating stopped, I guess that’s why I thought it might help the hair loss.

[Aurealis]

Heat intolerance can be a sign of hypo or hyper. Sometimes I think too high a dose causes sweating on minimum exertion, but then again for many years while untreated and undertreated I didn’t sweat at all and that’s not normal. I think as I always do, follow your instinct, in preference to tests, doctors and the learned on here. In your situation I think I’d be tempted to miss a whole days dose once and see what happens. If it makes you feel better then go to a lower dose. Hair loss is not something I have experience of.