Cytomel and Sertraline or Levothyroxine and Sertraline?

Hi everyone,

So I started cytomel a few weeks ago not expecting much of a change. I was just happy to get off of armour and go back to levothyroxine as you can see in my profile levothyroxine worked for me in the past. I never felt any difference taking armour. I felt an immediate difference taking cytomel. At first it made me sleep a lot. I think because my body felt rest deprived. Then two days later I felt much better and much less anxious and depressed. I was so excited I kept increasing everyday. I was up to 30 mcg a day and feeling great. I know that 25 mcg is a beginner dose so I dont feel like I was pushing my body that much. I also dropped the levothyroxine to 25 mcg and eventually wasn't taking it at all because it wasnt doing much for me. I know this isnt the way your supposed to do things but I've been dealing with these terrible symptoms for at least 15 years and I think I'm finally close to getting them under control. My doctor said I should've stuck with just taking 5 mcg of cytomel everyday and 50 mcg of levothyroxine than test the bloods. So I'm back on levothyroxine and 5 mcg of cytomel. I'm also on a high dose of sertraline that is impacting how I feel. I think mostly levothyroxine treatment could work but it takes much longer for me to feel better between levo and cytomel. If I take cytomel I feel like I can greatly increase my mood now instead of waiting months to make the same progress I could make in a week with cytomel. I didnt experience any hyper symptoms while on cytomel. I was taking 30 mcg everyday for about the last week and felt no hyper symptoms. It's my understanding to make 30 mcg t3 you would have to take at least 90 mcg of t4 and my body couldn't tolerate 75 mcg of levothyroxine (heart palpitations when taking t4 only 75 mcg, couldn't sleep). That would only convert to 25 mcg if I converted it perfectly well. Anyways it seems like my dr wants to stick with the levothyroxine and 5 mcg of cytomel approach. I think the best step for me would be to stay on 30 mcg until I feel well and stable for a month or so then see if I can add some levothyroxine back in, instead of the mostly levothyroxine track I'm on now which most likely my mood will start to plummet and I may have to wait a long while to feel better. Any thoughts? Dont try to shame me for what I've done you are wasting your time. Please PM if you want to know more details.

[greygoose]

Not trying to shame you in any way. But that's an awful lot of changes in a very short time.

I went from NDT - which made me very ill - to T3 only, I did a straight swop and adjusted from there. I can't help feeling that increasing T3 every day must have put a bit of a strain on your system. But, not half as much as your doctors potty idea of taking you from 30 mcg T3 to 50 mcg levo and 5 mcg T3. That's just insane.

I agree with you that staying on the 30 mcg T3 and attempting to add in some levo very slowly would be a far better idea. You might find that T4 doesn't suit you at all - it doesn't me - in which case, there's nothing wrong with staying on T3 only. It suits a lot of us perfectly.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

I'm most likely going to do that greygoose. I'm going to plead with my doctor about how well I've been feeling. If he denies me the cytomel than I most likely will go to my psychiatrist as they can prescribe for depression whether you are hypothyroid or not. I want to treat my hypothyroidism based on how I feel because I dont trust these blood tests and the doctors ability to read it anymore. I've taken blood tests in the past and nobody ever found thyroid issues. It took a suicide attempt for them to finally find something wrong. I've lived a long time in darkness and it's very hard for me to go back if I strongly believe I have a solution right in front of me.

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Follow your gut instinct, I say. It ought to be illegal for doctors to mess with people's lives like that!

[SilverAvocado]

Sad to hear you are being messed around by doctors Unfortunately it is so often the case

Cytomel also called T3 is about 4x as potent as Levothyroxine, which means 30mcg of Cytomel is the equivalent of about 120mcg of Levo.

If you can't tolerate up to about 75mcg of Levo, then it is probably just not right for you. Most people need Levo in doses higher than that for it to have much effect. It's much more common for people to struggle to increase Cytomel/T3 than Levo. But also most people who are able to would prefer to be taking Cytomel or Armour than Levo.

I agree with GG, changing your dose so quickly is unlikely to find your right dose. Its much better to wait a few weeks before a small increase, then once you're on a high- ish dose that might be close to optimal stick with it for at least 6 weeks. But it's definitely not something you should feel shame about. Its very understandable and reasonable to want to feel better so badly. Many of us have been there

I think your idea to spend a couple of month on 30mcg of T3 and see how you feel is a good one. After that two months you'll get a much better feel for if it's your perfect dose or you still need to raise. In that case get a full thyroid panel blood test if you can, and think about adjusting by 5mcg.

[Hidden in reply to SilverAvocado]

I think levothyroxine does work for me. I've seen it have great results. I'm going to try breaking up the dose between morning and night to see if I can tolerate it more. Maybe my body doesnt like that much t4 at once. I've heard that strategy works for some people. I might try that before going back to cytomel. At least I know cytomel works for me if all else fails.

[Hidden]

So I've went back to levothyroxine 50 mcg and I'm doing pretty good. I'm progressively feeling better each day. I think I just have to be more patient with the levo. The levothyroxine and sertraline are definitely interacting.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I'd like to get on tirosint but of course the price is jacked up.