HRT effects on thyroxine absorption.

[crapthyroid]

Hi. I started HRT 4weeks ago. I felt a little better first week however may be marginally worse now. I'm on oestrogel and progesterone. Can this be having an effect on my thyroxine absorption? My blood test results before I started HRT :

T4 18.9 (9-25) TSH 0.29 (0.2-5.0)

Should I be applying oestrogen at different time to taking thyroxine?

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You need to retest thyroid and vitamins 6-8 weeks after starting HRT

Frequently dose levothyroxine needs increasing

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)

If/when also on T3, make sure to take last third or quarter 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/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus vitamins including folate (private blood draw required)

medichecks.com/products/thy...

Thriva Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins By DIY fingerpick test

thriva.co/tests/thyroid-test

Thriva also offer just vitamin testing

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins by DIY fingerprick test

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

If you can get GP to test vitamins and antibodies then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3

£29 (via NHS private service ) and 10% off if go on thyroid uk for code

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

monitormyhealth.org.uk/thyr...

[crapthyroid in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you very much Slowdragon. I will look into private test. Having doubts already about HRT but the long term benefits seem worth holding out for.

[Pippy28]

I was on oral HRT and was told to take the tablets at a different time to the Levo. Rather than change the Levo routine, I went with Levo in the morning and HRT at night. It seemed to work well (although HRT stopped now due to migraines). Interestingly, my last blood (during HRT) showed slight over medication of thyroid (HRT usually causes the opposite) but the GP agreed to retest later (then COVID hit!!). If your oestrogen is a gel then it won’t matter so much but I’m guessing the progesterone is a tablet? If it were me, I wouldn’t take at the same time as Levo.

[crapthyroid in reply to Pippy28]

Thanks Pippy28. I have headaches and migraines and many on menopause site say HRT helped them. It's only been a month so feel I need to give it a fair crack of the whip 🙂

[Pippy28 in reply to crapthyroid]

Absolutely. I kept going for about 10 months because it helped with sleep and a little with aches and pains. Sadly my migraines always seemed to be monthly hormonal migraines. They were the one thing that had stopped during menopause. The HRT definitely triggered them again.... I could work out exactly when one would kick off. Apart from that, the HRT made me feel great.