Advice stupid doctors who's messing with my meds

[lisan1]

Hi I was taking 100+20 levothyroxine and liothyronine for a while. Then I got long covid and Dr lowered fort liothyronine to 10 and then levothyroxine to 87.5. All because they want a TSH within limits.

Results on 100+20

TSH <0.01

Ft3 5.9(3.6-6.3)

Ft419(12-22)

On 100+10

TSH <0.01

Ft3 5.1(3.6-6.3)

Ft419(12-22)

A having tests done on Wednesday. But I don't thing tsh will be in range. What do you advice me to do?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

lisan1

TSH is very unlikely to be in range when taking T3. If a doctor is prescribing then he ought to know what effect T3 has on test results and how to interpret them. Your results looked good on 100 + 20.

[Wired123]

I think most Endos would want to reduce your dose based on your bloods, BUT only slightly. So I feel they have reduced too much. Also should only reduce one thing at a time anyway.

I’d be inclined to just reduce my dose of Levo by 50mcg a WEEK which would be easiest by taking half a tablet on a Sunday for example and keeping everything else the same at 100 mcg + 20mcg the other 6 days.

Then test again in 6 weeks.

Most important is how you feel not blood test results.

TSH can also fluctuate randomly if you have Hashimoto’s.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You need to get full thyroid and vitamin testing

Vitamins drop when dose is reduced

TSH is extremely unlikely to increase when taking any dose of T3

[Wired123 in reply to SlowDragon]

Interesting point, are you basically saying any dose of T3 will suppress T3?

I understand the relationship between T4 and TSH, but it’s slightly less clear cut when it comes to T3.

Would be good to know more about this topic.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Wired123]

Many, many people find that on any dose of T3 TSH is frequently suppressed....even when significantly under medicated

Always essential to test Ft4 and Ft3 and ensure you test as recommended

Test as early as possible in morning before eating or drinking anything other than water and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test.

Day before test split T3 dose into 3 smaller doses at roughly 8 hour intervals., Taking last 1/3rd daily dose roughly 8-12 hours before test

How to get TSH as high as possible

thyroidpatients.ca/2020/01/...

Don’t rely on TSH

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/309...

Canadian Thyroid association on Low TSH

thyroidpatients.ca/rational...

Combined Levo plus T3 treatment

thyroidpatients.ca/2019/09/...

[greygoose in reply to Wired123]

It would appear that T3 has a 4x greater reducing factor on tsh than T4. But, I very much doubt any GPs know that!