Increase hair shedding

[Babysweet]

Hello. I had full thyrodectomy in February 2020 and I have been on 100mcg of levo thyroxine. My dose had to be adjusted a couple of times to get this dose (100mcg) that is fine with me. But I don’t know if one of the side effects of this medication is hair shedding. Especially when I wash my hair. I have a full head of hair and it’s becoming very distressing for me to see quite a bit of my hair in the bathroom. Can anyone please help..This was not happening before My thyrodectomy surgery was as a result of a very large goiter.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Did you get FULL Thyroid and vitamin test as detailed in my reply to your post 5 months ago

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

Low iron and/or ferritin extremely common and often linked to hair loss

On levothyroxine we need optimal vitamin levels

Full Thyroid and all four vitamins need testing 6-8 after each dose change or brand change in levothyroxine

Add results and ranges if you have any

Or Come back with new post once you get results

[Hidden]

Do you know your free T3 levels? Since you don´t have a thyroid, all the T3 now needs to come from conversion of T4.

Do you have recent FT3 and FT4 levels to post here?

[pennyannie]

Hello Babysweet

Just to say a fully functioning working thyroid would be supporting you on a daily basis with approximately 100 T4 + 10 T3. T4-Levothyroxine is a storage hormone and your body needs to be able to convert it into T3 which is the active hormone that the body runs and is about 4 times more powerful than T4.

Your conversion of the T6 into T3 can be compromised if your core strength is not strong and solid so it is also important that ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D are maintained at optimal levels.

Personally I just think it makes common sense that when there has been a medical intervention that both T3 and T4 are placed on the patient's prescription for if, and probably when, they will both be required to offer the patient a good return to optimal health.

This generally happens when both T3 and T4 are balanced and both in the upper quadrant of the relevant ranges, irrespective of where their TSH happens to be.

The TSH was originally introduced as a diagnostic tool to assist in a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Once on any form of thyroid hormone replacement the TSH looked at in isolation is meaningless, and you should be dosed and monitored on your T3 and T4 blood test results.

[Cooper27]

Hair shedding can be very distressing, I know the feeling.

A few things I found helped:

Be aware that all humans shed extra hair around August time - so you will see a bit of an increase from your baseline shedding right now. I'm only mentioning this so you don't feel as distressed when it increases like I did.

Caffeine shampoos can help reduce shedding.

Hair skin and nail supplements are brilliant for encouraging regrowth.

This will all be secondary to making sure you're on the right dose of medication and that you are eating a good diet.