June 2019 after good advice on here I took T3 and gradually built upto 100mcgs T4 & 18.75mcgs T3, the pills beiñg 25mcg, flattish, matt and easy to cut. Great improvement and no hypo symptoms at all for 10 days in November, which was great.
Picked up by NHS but endo changed dose to 75mcg T4 & 30mcg T3. Mercury Pharma pills good to cut but hypo symptoms came back. Pills were 20mcgs
Changed pills by pharmacy to generic, shiny convex which pill cutter cut into two thirds and a pile of bits. At the same time asked GP to go back to 100 T4mcg & 20mcg and T3 pills were 20mcg.
On a real roller coaster so asked pharmacy for change of brand got Morning Side. Next lot were Teva (manufactured in Hungary). Still got hypo symptoms yet theoretically taking more T3 than the 10 days of greatness last November.
Are these brands different in potency or is it the variable pill splitting? Getting fed up. Can't do private blood test as shielding husband and nurse friend busy with virus. Don't know what to try next?
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Darty3
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Many of us of levothyroxine plus T3 need good levels of Ft4 and Ft3
Dropping the levothyroxine dose too low may be causing the problem
How are taking your T3 ...as split dose or single dose
Do you always get same brand of levothyroxine?
Only 3 brands of T3 available as standard options...Mercury Pharma, Morningside Healthcare and Teva
Personally I prefer Morningside.....seems a bit stronger and blister packed with long use by date
Strongly recommend getting FULL Thyroid and vitamin testing via postal kit
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
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)
If/when also on T3, make sure to take last third or half of daily dose 8-12 hours prior to test, even if this means adjusting time or splitting of dose day before test
Is this how you do your tests?
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or thyroid antibodies or all relevant vitamins
I've been lucky and when I asked NHS for full bloods vits and ferratin etc they have done them and they show that spray vit D, eating liver etc is working.
For 16 years since thyroid cancer have taken Accord 100 mcg T4. Had Teva once near the beginning and nauseous so never had since. Just got this months drugs and T4 is Aristo.
T3 bought privately was uni-pharma from Greece. Results on own dosing were T4 20 (11-22) T3 6.6 (3.1-6.8)
After seeing endo with ridiculous dosing T4 11. T3 8.8 same ranges as above
After seeing GP and returning to dose T4 100mcg. T3 20mcg results T4 18. T3 7.5mcg ranges as above. So T3 still over range but no palpitations etc but headache every morning, dry mouth, constipation, weak bladder and muscles.
So many endocrinologists don’t “get” that we need good Ft4 and Ft4
Can take a while for B12 levels to recover from low Ft4. Low B12 (or at least B12 recovering) can cause bladder weakness
Can take several months for everything to rebalance after endocrinologists inappropriate meddling.
T3 bought privately was uni-pharma from Greece. Results on own dosing were T4 20 (11-22) T3 6.6 (3.1-6.8)
Those results are about where I find gives best improvement.
Best T3 I have tried was Uni Pharma (great pity it’s now virtually impossible to get). Took long time to get use to Morningside, but best NHS option for me and better than MP. Not tried Teva.
Always try to get same brand of levothyroxine and T3
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Which brand were you on that made you feel good? I always have Mercury Pharma and get on well with those but when the NHS stopped prescribing I had to buy from abroad and had Thybon Henning and they gave me side effects and seemed stronger, then I tried the French one and although not as bad, I did still get side effects. Now I'm back on NHS prescription and have been lucky enough to always get Mercury Pharma I'm fine. I do always have Mercury Pharma levo too. That can make a difference. If I get Wockhardt I go down hill and blood tests prove that. It seems we all react differently to these things.
Hi Summer64 i was just reading this post and read that you bought in the past your liothyronine. Could you pm me where please as I'm struggling to find a decent supplier x
That was some time ago now and I know the pharmacist in Germany has changed so I really can't help now. You could buy it over the counter in France too then but I gather you can't now.
The good brand was uni-pharma from Greece, so now trying to find best NHS brand. For accurate cutting I liked the Mercury Pharma I had from the hospital. On Teva (no side effects) but hard and shiney so don't cut accurately.
I take Cynomel by Grossman (Mexican T3) but it’s really not that potent or effective, in my honest opinion, but it’s better than all the other generic brands I have tried: Tiromel, Unipharma, Cynomel by Sanofi Aventis (French brand), LA Pharma (Thai brand.)
Some people find Cynomel by Grossman to be very potent but that has never been the case with me, it’s just better than taking no t3 medication at all. I now take a combination of synthetic T4 and T3 because I have not found any other NDT that’s comparable to the original Nature-throid (before its reformulation.)
It seems to me that everyone is different and that our bodies don't like all this chopping and changing. And like sulky teenagers we have to give them time to settle down. Just that I'm too impatient!!
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