I'm currently on 75mcg levo. 🙂 I have felt a huge improvement from when I was diagnosed - TSH at 9.37 and antibodies at about 900 (I think, from memory).
I still have to sleep 10+ hours though and an hour long walk yesterday meant I was good for nothing the rest of the day and had to go to bed at 8:30 so I'm far from optimally treated.
That's an absolute disgrace about your GP. I don't understand how they can see someone is clearly in ill health and effectively shrug their shoulders.
I need to update my profile section - thanks for the reminder! 😁
I'm hoping to speak to her today, unfortunately it's the same GP who told me 2 weeks ago that "we've see you a lot lately" so I feel she's already marked me!
guidelines on dose levothyroxine by weight can help push for a dose increase
Even if we don’t start on full replacement dose, most people need to increase levothyroxine dose slowly upwards in 25mcg steps (retesting 6-8 weeks after each increase) until on, or near full replacement dose
Consider starting levothyroxine at a dosage of 1.6 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day (rounded to the nearest 25 micrograms) for adults under 65 with primary hypothyroidism and no history of cardiovascular disease.
Traditionally we have tended to start patients on a low dose of levothyroxine and titrate it up over a period of months.
RCT evidence suggests that for the majority of patients this is not necessary and may waste resources.
For patients aged >60y or with ischaemic heart disease, start levothyroxine at 25–50μg daily and titrate up every 3 to 6 weeks as tolerated.
For ALL other patients start at full replacement dose. For most this will equate to 1.6 μg/kg/day (approximately 100μg for a 60kg woman and 125μg for a 75kg man).
If you are starting treatment for subclinical hypothyroidism, this article advises starting at a dose close to the full treatment dose on the basis that it is difficult to assess symptom response unless a therapeutic dose has been trialled.
A small Dutch double-blind cross-over study (ArchIntMed 2010;170:1996) demonstrated that night time rather than morning dosing improved TSH suppression and free T4 measurements, but made no difference to subjective wellbeing. It is reasonable to take levothyroxine at night rather than in the morning, especially for individuals who do not eat late at night.
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