Struggling Under-active thyroid sufferer

[Naseebah]

Hi,

Can anyone help? I am from the Bristol area and battled with my thyroid on and off since 2009 when I was first Diagnosed. In 2015 I was on Armour and it was amazing for me, when I fell pregnant I was in a position to not take anything at all and felt the best I have ever felt now my little one is two and clearly all those extra hormones I had with pregnancy have now depleted I am starting to suffer again, I got blood results two days ago saying TSH of 64.7 and T4 of 5.2, i had already explained I want to go back on Armour and my GP has said they won’t do it and written me a referral letter but now I am not sure what to do next or how to get back on Armour - can anyone help me? I can’t use Levo as it makes me present all new symptoms I didn’t start with....... any help would be great!

[MaisieGray]

Whilst it's true that the two pregnancy-related hormones—human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and estrogen—can cause some increase in thyroid hormone levels in your blood, it is unwise to stop taking exogenous thyroid hormones if you have a failing thyroid. In fact each of the UK/European/US guidelines state that thyroid meds be increased on diagnosis of pregnancy, and thereafter if required - until at least the second trimester the foetus is wholly dependent upon its mother's l-thyroxine for its brain and other development as it has no thyroid function of its own during that period of gestation. Separately, it is also a phenomenon that people often report feeling well or better for a period of time when stopping meds, but nevertheless their thyroid function and hormone levels continue to deteriorate - and an inadequacy of thyroid hormones, as demonstrated by your own test results, can cause longterm damage to brain, heart, bone and just about everything else. It isn't therefore wise to be without thyroid meds if your thyroid is dysfunctional. Re. NDTs, they have never been licensed in the UK but were at least prescribed by some GPs. However, guidelines to Drs have now been tightened up and state that "The prescribing of unlicensed liothyronine and thyroid extract products is not supported." Hence your GP's refusal to prescribe Armour. Should you wish to be considered for a trial of T3 if it is indicated, that may now be initiated only by an NHS Endocrinologist. You might therefore have to show how, when taking mono-Levo, it is inadequate for you, especially since you have no recent history of taking any meds at all. You could however, see a private Endo for a private prescription, but that is no guarantee that longer term the NHS would take over responsibility for prescribing. Regarding taking Levo, it is often the case that what people believe is the Levo causing "new symptoms" is actually them still being under-medicated and not yet at their optimum dose. Without knowing what your FT3 level is, it's not possible to say exactly how lacking you are, but obviously a TSH of that magnitude and such a low level of FT4 is not something to put off treating while you wait for your Endo appt. An alternative would be to source NDTs privately such as Thai NDT that many source online, and you could write another post asking for sources by private message.