Does T3 improve your under active thyroid condition, does it improve hair quality?
Advice please! I have been on Levothyroxine for more than 20 years taking 150 mg per day. I would love to know more about other possible medications besides T3.
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BHJONES85
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T3 is another thyroid hormone. It is only necessary to take T3 if you are not making enough T3 from your levothyroxine.
It is very difficult to get T3 on an NHS prescription and many have to pay for private prescriptions and source the T3 from abroad where it is cheaper. A month of T3 in the UK would cost around £200.
An NHS doctor cannot prescribe T3, it has to be done initially by an NHS endocrinologist. Or you need to go privately to an endocrinologist.
If you want advice on whether to pursue T3 or thyroid medication containing T3 post your latest blood results and folks will comment.
You can only know if you need T3 by have a full thyroid panel, i.e. TSH, FT4 and FT3, all done at the same time.
If you have problems with hair, presumably you mean thinning? This can be due to vitamin deficiencies as well as hypothyroidism. We need optimal nutrient levels for thyroid hormone to work properly, so besides the above thyroid tests, you should also test Vit D, B12, Folate and Ferritin.
Come back with results, including reference ranges, plus units of measurement for Vit D and B12, and we can help further.
First step is to get FULL thyroid and vitamin testing
Frequently hair loss is due to low vitamin levels
Before even considering adding T3 all vitamins need to be optimal and levothyroxine dose may need increase too
Do you always get same brand of levothyroxine?
What vitamin supplements are you currently taking?
When were thyroid and vitamins last tested
For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested. Also EXTREMELY important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
Low vitamin levels are extremely common, especially if you have autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's) diagnosed by raised Thyroid antibodies
Do you have Hashimoto’s?
You may need to get full Thyroid testing privately as NHS refuses to test TG antibodies if TPO antibodies are negative
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .
Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
Is this how you do your tests?
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins
1) You need blood tests that show you have much higher(in range) free T4 than free T3 - ie that you are a "poor converter" and that levo on its own isn't working. Your T4 is inactive and converts to T3: if it doesn't convert well enough you may have a case for showing you need T3 as well.
2) Yes can do - if you need it.
T3 can only be prescribed by an endocrinologist, so you will need a referral from your GP. And not many will prescribe T3 [most are diabetes specialists and don't know that much about thyroids anyway]. If you email Dionne at Thyroid UK - tukadmin@thyroiduk.org - she will send you a list of T3-friendly endos. You can see any endo in the country - it doesn't have to be closest to you geographically, but obviously needs to be convenient for you to get to for appointments.
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