I recently had a thyroid test and my t4 was under. The Gp increased my Levo to 150. I am a mess and have been for years now - I am taking quetiapine and sertraline for the depression but not feeling well and my body has ballooned up I am 3 stone overweight despite following a strict healthy diet and forcing myself to exercise and yoga. I do however find it really difficult to exercise and it drains me. You’ll see from my previous posts I have had private blood testing and take the appropriate vitamins as recommended on here. I am speaking with my psychiatrist on Tuesday and want to ask for t3. He has mentioned it previously but said he didn’t want it to interfere with my thyroxine. I am at the end of this awful road I have been like this for 6 years and tried every antidepressant you can think of . This combo prevents me from being bed ridden but I have no real life.
If my psych won’t give me t3 would I be able to get some info about sourcing it privately from any of you guys.
Many thanks I’m so desperate I hate all this fat I was always a size 10/12 I’m now more like 16/18 and I feel so unhappy xx😟
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Desperate-Suzi
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Thankyou for responding lalafoot. It really does feel like water my stomach reminds me of when I was pregnant just blown up. I’ll look again at my diet thankyou. Do you think I would benefit from t3?
To know if you would benefit from t3 you would need to post thyroid blood results tsh, ft4 and Ft3. Only by looking at them can you judge.
T3 is not a quick or easy fix. It will have taken me a year of combo to adjust my doses to find the optimal levels of ft4 and Ft3. I would advise anyone to ensure they have tried levo thoroughly first and had their ft4 high in range and tsh lower than 1 before looking at t3.
Also you need to know that ssri drugs such as sertraline and citalopram affect the absorption of thyroid medication. This means that if you take this medication you may need a slightly higher dose of levo than you would otherwise.
This is because of the changes ssri meds make to gut function.
Do you still have high prolactin...have you seen any endocrinologist re this?
Previous post shows you were on Metavive....presumably now back on just levothyroxine?
Do you always get same brand of levothyroxine
You need to get recent FULL thyroid and vitamin testing
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 or NDT or Metavive make sure to take last half or third 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
Slow dragon I don’t have high prolactin anymore it went down when I stopped taking snri effexor. The endo I saw said she thought this had caused the high prolactin levels.
I’ve just looked at my recent thyroid results and are as follows :
He increased my dose by 25mcg but said nothing of repeating the test. I don’t have any recent vitamin results but am hoping to get some done if my psychiatrist recommends it tomorrow when I talk to him and ask again about t3.
ALWAYS get thyroid tested as early as possible in morning before eating or drinking anything other than water and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
Push for vitamin testing NOW ....or test privately
I took Cymbalta a while back and this absolutely destroyed my thyroid levels even though I never took them anywhere near my thyroid meds.... I can relate to the weight gain its a horrible monster.
Hi Kiska I came off it as my prolactin levels soared and I was refd to an endocrinologist who told me that venlafaxine was the reason behind that . Thankyou for your kind words it might be worth seeing a Pvte psychiatrist if your feeling so unwell and they might change your meds until they find something that works for you xx
Sometimes Medichecks cut the cost of an individual test for a short time - Thursdays is a good day to check. You can't combine special offers.
Personal anecdote : I have suffered from low iron all my life. I started learning about iron and ferritin in my 50s and started treating myself. I discovered that improving my iron and ferritin until I got them as close to optimal as possible eliminated my anxiety and reduced my depression.
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