Started T3 and need advice please...

[HarlesBarles]

I started t3 ten days ago. I’m taking 5 mcg T3 in the morning an hour before food and 100mcg T4 at night. I was taking 112.5 mcg T4 before starting T3.

I felt so wonderful for the first five days: loads of energy, clear head, alert, productive, happy and relieved to feel normal at long last. Side effects were increased appetite, two episodes of diarrhoea and waking with night sweats and racing heart around 4am.

At day six I started to get markedly increased joint and muscle pains like when I accidentally eat gluten (I hadn’t eaten any). I added in 5mcg of T3 in the afternoon and was feeling good the first day or two (aside from the pains) but these last three days I have been feeling increasingly hypo. My skin has gone dry, appetite reduced, I’m slow, lethargic, constipated, cold and a bit down which for me is quite unusual as I’m usually upbeat even when I feel physically rubbish. Still sweating a little at night with noticeable heart rate increase upon waking around 4am but it doesn’t last long and I fall asleep straight away.

So... basically, my question is, is my body adjusting to the T3 and needing more thus the hypo symptoms? Is this a typical reaction? I had a similar reaction when starting T4 in March. I felt great initially, so so much better, and then absolutely horrible mid-April until October when I finally got my T4 levels high enough.

I am physically tired in the evenings but more mentally alert than pre-T3 and worry if I add in a third T3 dose later in the day it may keep me from sleeping... or will it help me to sleep through?

Any and all suggestions would be hugely appreciated. I am so grateful for this group!!!

[Suzi-B]

you've started on quite a high dose it T3, did doctor tell you to take that higher dose?? I started T3 5 days ago and I’m on quarter of a tablet once a day at the mo so that 6.25 of a 25 tablet, I’m to take the quarter of a tablet for 2/4 wks b for I increase the dose!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Suzi-B]

I think you misread the post

HarlesBarles started on 5mcg T3

[Suzi-B in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes I think I may well of..... oooops!

[fuchsia-pink]

Your results before you started lio were

FT3 5 pmol/l (range: 3.1-6.8)

FT4 20.4 (range: 12-22)

So free T4 was already near the top of the range and free T3 was 51% through range.

It's possible you are now slightly over-medicated ... maybe go back to 1 x 5 mcg of lio for another week, then drop some levo for a couple of weeks (maybe 25 mcg on alternate days) and then add back 5 mcg of lio, hold for 6 weeks and re-test ...

[HarlesBarles in reply to fuchsia-pink]

What confuses me is why would I have so many hypo symptoms if over medicated? Is that a typical reaction to over medication?

The only hyper symptom I am currently experiencing are the slight night sweats and waking with heart racing and now that I think about it, I had that all summer when I was undermedicated on 50 and 75 mcgs. I am definitely back to having the hypo symptoms that I suffered at around 75-100mcgs of T4 only.