For 6 years I have been taking NDT due to rising costs and 6 week shipping delay I am considering T3 only. My current NDT is 38mcg T4 +9mcg T3 per tablet/grain, I currently take 6 grains per day.
The t3 tablet is 25mcg
I presume then roughly I would need 2 x 25mcg t3 per day or do I need more To compensate for lack of T4 and does the dose need to be split twice a day as I do my NDT
Any help or advice greatly appreciated
Some on t3 only take it in one dose as they find it better. Others split it into 2 or 3 doses.
As ndt has a mix of t4 and t3 you need to be aware that not everybody gets on with not taking t4. On t3 only your ft4 will be very low and some need ft4 to be higher, more in balance with their Ft3. To achieve this they also take levo.
I'll tell you how I did it, as far as I can remember.
I was being supervised at the time by Dr Peatfield (retired), who had weaned me off levo on to NDT initially. My situation may well be different to your own because NDT never suited me at all, so a move to T3 monotherapy was a clinical necessity rather than a practical one.
Dr P had me stop NDT for two weeks, to allow the levo to decline to a level that no longer made me feel as if I'd been poisoned. Because I'd had untreated hypo since childhood, followed by another 20 years of increasingly severe illness on any dose of levo, he thought my heart could only cope with very slow and careful titration of T3.
I then started on just 5mcg and worked up over many months to 50 mcg. Later on, we realised I also had a form of resistance to thyroid hormone, so I've ended up on a very large dose, taken all at once, that would sink an elephant!
Thank you for your response, I have heard good things about Dr Peatfield and he seems to have helped you, most Drs don't know how to treat the thyroid effectively so the only option is to self medicate, fortunately for me NDT works just can't source at the moment due to slow postage so will try t3 and see how it goes
Thanks for the response, I know its a lot which initially did worry me but feel good on it and last full bloods were all good. I did take Levothyroxine prior to NDT about 300mcg and never felt well and became increasingly worse started vomiting soon after taking it so set about the NDT journey.
I have now sourced 2 different brands of NDT's of which one has arrived the other in transit, still waiting for T3 to be delivered so hopefully all will be ok now
The odd thing is, I converted perfectly, according to my labs. Yet, I couldn't tolerate levo. I went from 6 grains NDT to 100 mcg T3, and worked up to 200 mcg. Even, for a short period, 225 mcg, taking it all in one go at bedtime. Didn't feel any different.
Crunchtime came with infected spider bites and I was in hospital for two weeks. I didn't tell them I was hypo, they thought I was hyper, huge confusion, and the left hand had no idea what the right was doing. I stayed off all thyroid hormone for six months, ended up with a TSH of 45, started T3 only from zero and worked up to 75 mcg. Which I'm still on. I've tried taking less, I've tried taking more. I've tried adding in T4. But, I always come back to 75 mcg T3, because that's where I feel most comfortable.
But, mine is not a typical story. And, I wouldn't recommend anyone trying to do it that way! That's just me. 
In every way! 😎
Hello Joiebe
Just to add my twopenniesworth !!
It sounds to me as though you are not converting the T4 in the NDT :
6 NDT grains equals 54 T3 and I read most people use around 50 T3 to function ?
There is a new NDT in the market, there are post on here regarding Tru Thyroid and understand it is being air freighted so about 2 weeks delivery from order, but it is in 1/2 grain tablets so you would be looking at 12 capsules a day - but read it is relatively free of the mixers and fillers that some people can't get on with.
I suspected for years I wasn’t converting but GP at the time wasn’t much help so went down the self help route. I am now in IE And different GP, standard bloods included rt3 and ft3 So from those bloods I upped from 5.5 grains to 6 which made a big difference and have been feeling great for past year so I was very concerned having to go back to square one due to supply issues. I have ordered some from Vietnam and have some from UK as a stop gap so should be ok.
Something that has always puzzled me which you may know the answer to - if we need t3 in the body and T4 converts to t3, If the thyroid is not functioning correctly why not just Have t3 only?
Hey there again,
Just to say, if you don't reply to a named person, they are not notified of your post.
So, I think the body produces T3 and T4 as both are needed in normal circumstances - as our energy and needs peak and trough throughout a 24 hour cycle and we are continually adjusting our body's requirements.
T4 is inert, a storage hormone and if you have optimal health you convert what you need, when you need it, into T3. and if storing too much T4 it gets naturally converted into reverse T3 so you don't make yourself short term ' hyper ' : reverse T3 is naturally broken down and the body looses normal levels and adjusts itself back ' on stand by ' for the next day :
Maybe liken it to petrol in a car with the thyroid being the engine and the T3 the fuel :
The more work the car has to do, the more the consumption, you have brakes that work, a reverse gear that functions, and cruise control when in a good open stretch of road comes before you, and you don't need to think twice about getting up that hill.
If one hasn't the natural ability to convert T4 with ease when needed, your thyroid hormone production will be erratic, and your energy levels disrupted, and your health decline.
T3 has a relatively short active time span, so this can mean some people multi dose T3 throughout the day, but there are other people who take a dose just once a day. It's a personally thing, and think Paul Robinson has written books on this subject. There are also people who have a gene malfunction and can't convert - so that maybe something else to look into :
But there are people who take T3 only and write and give advise on this amazing website, so you're not alone in all this, and maybe it all comes down to having a doctor who has the knowledge to advise you what is in your best interests..
Thank you for the response which explains it well, probably because I was stable on NDT for several years I stopped researching but still lots to learn x
Hey there,
You'll learn a lot from reading other peoples post and the answers they receive and the Thyroid uk website is a good base for all things thyroid.
Yes, it's a massive learning curve, Dr Peatfield has retired but I have his book :- Your Thyroid and How To Keep It Healthy - think Amazon - and he is hypothyroid and I believe takes NDT. He writes in an easy to understand way, so don't be put off - it's one of my " go tos " - and forgot to say " welcome to the forum " :
Thinking on I guess until research identified and produced the synthetic form of T3 - called Liothyronine, NDT was the only medication available and people just took as much as needed to reduce / eliminate the disabling symptoms.
There were no blood tests or guidelines or boxes to tick, just simply being the doctor and having the desire to listen, believe help and assist the patient alleviate their disabling symptoms.
Hi Joiebe - I am thinking about doing the same switch because the price of NDT has gone up hugely (if it is available at all!). Mind you I take 4 grains NDT so may need 4 x 25mcg of Tiromel so I’m not sure I will save anything but I can at least get hold of it!
I too self medicate as I couldn’t get my doctors to understand that Levo was not making me well and she was completely against trying anything else!
I thought I would try gradually decreasing the NDT over several weeks or even months and replacing it with a spaced T3 dose......
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