T3: Pills, Potency & Brands: June 2019 after good... - Thyroid UK

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T3: Pills, Potency & Brands

Darty3 profile image
14 Replies

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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SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator

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

List of private testing options

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin

medichecks.com/products/thy...

Medichecks often have special offers, if order on Thursdays

Thriva Thyroid plus vitamins

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

Darty3 profile image
Darty3 in reply to SlowDragon

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.

SlowDragon profile image
SlowDragonAdministrator in reply to Darty3

How do you take your 20mcg?

As split dose 2 or 3 times per day or single dose

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

Aristo is new brand - lactose free

Darty3 profile image
Darty3 in reply to SlowDragon

I take it x2 per day hence the pill cutting

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK

Just for information:

UK Liothyronine Tablets

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

Last updated 30/04/2020.

This is a list of currently marketed liothyronine tablets in the UK.

—————————————————————

🔹 Advanz – branded Mercury Pharma formerly branded Tertroxin (marketing authorisation holder)

🏭 manufacturer Custom Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

🥛 contains lactose

  20  PL 10972-0033

—————————————————————

🔹 Morningside – also branded Iraksin (marketing authorisation holder)

🏭 manufacturer Morningside Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

🥛 contains lactose

  5  PL 20117-0323

  10  PL 20117-0324

  20  PL 20117-0270

—————————————————————

🔹 Teva – (marketing authorisation holder)

  20  PL 00289/2116

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

Some non-UK Liothyronine Tablets

🔹 Ace – branded Cytomel (marketing authorisation holder – Netherlands)

🏭 manufacturer Ace

  5

  12.5

  25

—————————————————————

🔹 Mayne Pharma – (marketing authorisation holder – USA)

🏭 manufactured in Germany

  5

  25

  50

—————————————————————

🔹 Pfizer – branded Cytomel (marketing authorisation holder – USA)

🏭 manufactured in Austria

  5

  25

  50

—————————————————————

🔹 Sanofi – branded Cynomel (marketing authorisation holders – France)

  25

—————————————————————

🔹 Sanofi Deutschland – branded Henning Thybon (marketing authorisation holders – Germany)

🏭 manufacturer Sanofi-Aventb, S.A. Josep Pla, 2, 08019 Barcelona, Spain

  20

  100

—————————————————————

🔹 SigmaPharm – (manufacturer – USA)

🏭 Sigmapharm Laboratories, LLC

  5

  25

  50

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

🔹 – identifies marketing authorisation holders

🏭 – identifies manufacturers (where known)

—————————————————————

Numbers refer to tablet dosages in micrograms.

Only products which definitely contain lactose are identified (🥛 contains lactose). Please check other products.

If there is anything inaccurate in this information, please let me know by Private Message:

healthunlocked.com/user/hel...

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

This document is updated whenever I am aware of any changes or enhancements are needed. Please check the Last updated date. The current version is available as a PDF here:

dropbox.com/s/xlibro9l9jbfb...

Summer64 profile image
Summer64

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.

debsmitch60 profile image
debsmitch60 in reply to Summer64

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

Summer64 profile image
Summer64 in reply to debsmitch60

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.

debsmitch60 profile image
debsmitch60 in reply to Summer64

Thank-you for replying anyway. I will keep on looking.

Darty3 profile image
Darty3 in reply to Summer64

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.

Summer64 profile image
Summer64 in reply to Darty3

I was told you could only get T3 in 20mcg tablets so I have to cut mine but I see some people have smaller tablets but they may be a different make.

LivingWithHT profile image
LivingWithHT

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.)

Darty3 profile image
Darty3 in reply to LivingWithHT

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!!

LivingWithHT profile image
LivingWithHT in reply to Darty3

I hear ya!

And, honestly, it’s not even guaranteed it’ll work out 😕. A lot of trial and error!

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