I am currently on 40 mcg of Liothyronine split into 3 doses. 15mcg, 15mcg & 10mcg. Also 50mcg of levo.
All my vitals are good & my vitamins too.
I’ve been on this dose for 5 weeks & in the last 3 weeks I’ve been experiencing diarrhoea most days but only in the morning.
My latest blood results last week were:
TSH <0.01 (0.30-4.20)
FT4 12.8 (12-22)
FT3 7.5 (3.10-6.80)
I was thinking that I might need to lower my T3 but by how much is it safe to lower it?
I was two weeks into 40mcg & previous to that I was on 15,10,10.
How did you feel on the 35mcg daily, what were your results and why was your dose increased?
I felt good on 35 mcg but my temperature was 36.8 whereas when I first went up to 35mcg it was 37.1. So I decided to go to 40 mcg to see if I could get it back up to 37.1.
My results when I was on 30mcg we’re:
TSH 0.008 (0.27-4.2)
FT3 4.73 (3.1-6.8)
FT4 13.20 (12-22)
I didn’t get tested at 35mcg.
Well, if you felt good on 35mcg I wouldn't have worried about temperature. A normal temperature is said to be about 36.5C to 37.5C. I've never bothered with my temperature, I know as a Hypo patient it tends to be a bit lower than a normal healthy person anyway.
I’m going to drop the lunch time dose down to 10 from 15 tomorrow and see if it solves the problem.
I’m currently under investigation for Leukaemia so the specialist can’t understand the diarrhoea bit. He thinks it has another cause & I’m now wondering if it’s too much T3 as I know that can be a side effect. Thank you.
Temperature is no use for monitoring thyroid therapy, it varies considerably between patients. I would stay on the lowest dose that you feel well on in the hope your TSH may eventually pick up.
"in the hope your TSH may eventually pick up".
What does "pick up" mean = end up in range?
Why would that be desirable?
It´s usually said that the TSH will be suppressed in patients taking T3, which is why you need to go by free T3 and symptoms to decide if you are on an optimal dose. Many patients on optimal doses of T3 are unable to maintain an in-range TSH.
That’s what I read too. Especially if you’ve had thyroid cancer like I have. I’m not worried about the TSH as I expected it to be suppressed.
It´s usually recommended to have a suppressed TSH in thyroid cancer patients.
As well as stimulating thyroid secretion TSH stimulates T4 to T3 conversion. So, a higher TSH (for the same fT3, fT4) would be better. If you take more hormone than you need you keep TSH down and so reduce T4 to T3 conversion. So stay on the lowest dose that resolves symptoms.
T3 is lowered in 5mcg at a time.
So would that be 5mcg a week or ?
Increases are built up in 5mcg every 2 weeks so decreasing I imagine would be the same or slower. It depends on you and how much you feel you need to decrease t3. 5mcg will probably do it for you. It takes 3 or 4 days for me to notice a decrease.
No, per day 😊
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