Which hormone, HRT or T3?

[FancyPants54]

Hi

I have the Dio2 gene defect so I have started adding some T3 to my Levo. I am also menopausal and on HRT. I had a lot of issues with my HRT and have recently (2 months ago perhaps) swapped to a spray delivery which I like.

After a dodgy start to the T3 addition (thanks to a weird idea that my endocrinologist wanted me to do even though I was very wary of) I have been taking 10mcg T3 a day for 8 days now and 10 a day for some days of the 2 weeks previously (don't ask, I didn't think it would work either!). I split my dose 8.30am and 3pm at present, although in those first 2 weeks of odd dosing I took all 10mcg in one go, with Levo, first thing. I also dropped my Levo from 125 to 100 even though I didn't think it needed it. He was insistent. That reduction happened about 3 weeks ago now.

I felt good at first. I have persistent atrial fibrillation with high heart rate for which I take a beta blocker so need to be careful, but I feel as if my heart loves the T3 and calms down when I have some.

But something is off now. I feel a little kind of creeping anxiousness inside, unsettled. As if I want to stand in the middle of the room and just have a little cry. My shoulders hurt and the fluid retention that had subsided has returned. I have no drive or enthusiasm and back to no energy.

As my dose of T3 wears off my heart rate increases and late last night my Afib was much more lively. When I take my 5mcg T3 in the morning I'm no longer feeling more energetic or awake. It's as if it's not there. But the heart is calm.

I don't know if this shows I'm ready to increase my dose of T3 to 15mcg a day now, or if I need to increase my HRT a bit and wait for another week to pass before increasing my T3.

Any thoughts? HRT or T3?

I know we recommend people introduce T3 and wait 2 weeks before increasing. But my initial 2 weeks of weird dosing has thrown me, plus the reduction in Levo is presumably really kicking in now.

[Angel_of_the_North]

Both if you need them as hormones need to be balanced. But bioidentical HRT customized to what you need tends to work better than one-size-fits-all, esp if the trad type is oestrogen only.

[FancyPants54 in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

The question, probably badly worded, was given the symptoms, which hormone is most likely to be out of line here.

As I am feeling worse by the day it must be the thyroid hormones. I'm so exhausted. So unhappy and miserable. Can't concentrate, read or be bothered to talk. I think it might be that dropping my already not that high T4 by 25 and only adding 10 T3 in is making me more hypo.

My HRT is body identical and prescribed by a menopause specialist so I'm happy with the type, I just wondered if my dose might need increasing. But I don't think so. Not feeling like this. Must be thyroid.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to FancyPants54]

Could also be low progesterone, so I'd say T3 and progesterone too low, but if your get up and go has got up and gone, you could also be low in testosterone. If you are bad tempered, too much testosterone and not enough progesterone, if very weepy, too much oestrogen in relation to progesterone. Some people need higher FT4 than others even when on T3. If my mood feels wrong I generally just add a grain of NDT for one or two days (yes, add not substitute). Now that's very unscientific but works for me.