Recently diagnosed and need advice

[Pottypotter]

I have only just started on my Hypothyroid journey and would really appreciate your help and advise;

At my first diagnosis ( done in January this year) my TSH level was 39mui/L and I was put onto 25mg of levothyroxine. It came down to 37mui/L after six weeks so then they upped the dose to 75mgs which was working well for a few months until about 6 weeks ago when I started to feel awful again. No doctors had been in touch to ask me to go for a follow up blood test since April this year. Feeling tired, sluggish, feet aching, cramps in legs.... I went and had another blood test last week and the thyroid reading came back this week as TSH 17 mui/L so its still not quite right. My question is can I up the dosage of levo myself to 100mgs and see how I feel, or must I wait for the doctors permission to do this even though the doctors are not experts either....?

My T4 levels have remained pretty stable at 13 and now 14 pmol//L

I had a health screen blood test done last week and the results are in but they dont mean much to me and it didnt included any vitamin and mineral levels.....

I also see they many people on the forum talk about individual dosing for T3 and T4 but Levothyroxine is the only drug I have been offered, are there different drugs out there which treat all these levels individually or just the one blanket drug?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Pottypotter

Please see my replies on your other thread, there is much information within those that answers your question about your current dose and how to go about getting an increase.

Your cramps could possibly be helped by supplementing magnesium, but I have listed the vitamins that are necessary for us Hypos to test and optimise.

Levo is the first line of thyroid hormone replacement and the only one that the NHS wants to prescribe. In rare circumstances some patients are prescribed T3 in addition to Levo, and very rarely some patients need T3 only, but that would only be considered very much further down the line. Before considering any other thyroid hormone replacement, it's necessary to get your TSH into range, preferably around 1, to see where your FT4 and FT3 then lie. That then tells us whether we convert T4 to T3 well enough, if we don't then we can reassess.

[Pottypotter in reply to SeasideSusie]

I have just started taking a magnesium supplement at bedtime, three nights in and no night cramps thank goodness!!

[silverfox7]

Just a bit of general advice. Keep a diary of your journey. Wish I had as it’s easier to look back and see what you have tried before and any issues you found. Thinks can change more at first so jot done dose changes and add in your results along the way.