Adjusting T3 and T4 dose to suit size of tablets! - Thyroid UK

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Adjusting T3 and T4 dose to suit size of tablets!

Rainbow47 profile image
6 Replies

I’m taking 100 mcg T4 and 17.5 mcg T3 and finding cutting up the T3 (20) is complicated and wasteful and rather hit and miss. Would it be acceptable to reduce my T4 a little bit and increase T3 to 20 mcg? If so, how much would I reduce by?

In an ideal world I would get different sizes of T3 tablets, but the cost doesn’t bear thinking about! Maybe someone on here has a cunning plan to get the dosage just right!?

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Rainbow47 profile image
Rainbow47
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fuchsia-pink profile image
fuchsia-pink

Three weeks ago you posted this :

Three weeks ago I took antibiotics for a bad chest infection. A week later I went into complete meltdown - tears, tantrums, nausea, unable to eat and so cold all the time. I immediately did a blood test to check that all was well in that department - they came back almost unchanged from six weeks prior. They were Medichecks TSH - 0.01, T3 - 5.95, T4 - 16.8. I spoke to my psychiatrist and we decided I should increase my T3 dose by 2.5, which I have done, but have recently felt over medicated so am reducing again.

So are you now on 17.5 mcg having decided a few weeks ago that 20 mcg didn't suit? Or was the increase a few weeks ago from 15 mcg to 17.5 mcg?

If you're now on 17.5 mcg, there's scope within the medichecks range to increase lio without necessarily decreasing levo - so you may want to try that, but if it doesn't feel right, to reduce your levo in baby steps - say 100 mcg x 5 days a week and 50 mcg x 2 days a week - and potentially increase the number of 50 mcg days until you feel your dose is right for you, hold and re-test. Or drop lio to 1/2 a tablet and increase levo by 25 mcg a day and see how that feels.

so basically trial and error! Always best to finish one tablet completely, even if that means licking up crumbs, before splitting the next. You may also want to try a different pill cutter/ scalpel

Good luck x

Rainbow47 profile image
Rainbow47 in reply tofuchsia-pink

You’re absolutely right! I upped my T3 to 20 but after a couple of days I became hyper, couldn’t sleep, temp went up etc etc, so returned to 17.5, but it’s such a nightmare getting an accurate dose (I’ve tried every knife, scalpel, pill cutter I could lay my hands on).

I know it’s all trial and error but just wondered if there was any medical reason for not reducing T4. To me it makes sound sense, but just wanted to be sure!! Will now have to cut the levo instead!🤣

Thanks for your helpful words - will persevere!

fuchsia-pink profile image
fuchsia-pink in reply toRainbow47

We poor converters quite often have our levo reduced when starting on lio because it's already over-range (to get us a level of T3 we can function with) - but your free T4 was less than half-way through range last time - I need mine MUCH higher than that :) so given you didn't like a whole tablet of lio before, I think I would drop lio to half a tablet and increase levo by 25 mcg to try and get both levels better ...

ps you're not hyper when you go over-range - just over-medicated [and technically only over-medicated if it's free T that's over-range]

beh1 profile image
beh1 in reply tofuchsia-pink

Although, it should be noted that the OP is taking the lio as a form of antidepressant medication, prescribed by a psychiatrist so maybe check back with him/her before reducing further?

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply toRainbow47

I found the following pill splitter to be good at splitting tablets, especially T3 as they are small and it is just under £3.

amazon.co.uk/Safe-Sound-Pil...

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

You could just take the 20mcg of T3 as there's very little difference. You might find it works well with your T4. If you do feel the combination is 'a bit too much' just reduce slightly your T4.

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