T3 self Medicate.

[Zuzka1]

Hi All, I'm just wondering....is there any idea of how many people there are that self Medicate their Thyroid issues? I do, just wondering how many others do!?

[Jackita]

Hi, I've just started taking t3 this morning to supplement my daily levo dose. Any tips?! I was planning on taking 12.5 mcg in the morning and then 6.25 at lunch and 6.25 around early evening, sis this sound like too much for a starting dose? Also, I haven't lowered my t4, should I? I will test everything (apart from rt3) in a week. Thanks x

[Gingernut44 in reply to Jackita]

I think you need to start your own post as this will get lost in someone else’s thread

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Jackita]

Please write this as a new post - as Gingernut44 has suggested.

[abirose311 in reply to Jackita]

T3 does not stay in the body and build up like T4. It works instantly and if you take too much, you're sure to feel it.

[Zuzka1 in reply to abirose311]

Yes thats my understanding too - so if I take to much I will be sure to know and can immediately drop back down....

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Lots do.

I have no idea how many - either as a number of as a proportion of all thyroid sufferers.

[Zuzka1 in reply to helvella]

It's interesting to me. I think there's lots of people on their own journey.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Zuzka1]

I agree - definitely interesting.

I suspect there are many who are somewhere between total reliance on doctors and total reliance on self.

Whether a doctor has advised or agrees with adding some T3, or simply making changes to dosing depending on experience (tests, feeling, whatever else). Or continuing a treatment advised, maybe even prescribed, by a doctor and later withdrawn.

[Zuzka1 in reply to helvella]

Yes I was prescribed (because I begged for it) and the Endo then started to lower the dose just as I was starting to do well. I also moved house and area around the same time and then with guidance I went fully alone.

I do wonder if I should get my bloods done but I think now I'm much more aware of how my body feels...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Zuzka1]

Ignoring the cost issue, I think it a good idea to test regularly.

It is all too easy to think all is well but actually find yourself a bit higher or lower than you think. And if you feel wrong, it isn't necessarily thyroid - so a re-test at the time might help to decide whether or not it is thyroid.

It also provides an objective measure you could, potentially, use in future should you find the need.

[Zuzka1 in reply to helvella]

Ohhh, I've not had a test for about 1 year now...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Zuzka1]

Regularly - not frequently!

You must do what you think is right.

[lola1956]

Not sure how many self medicate on T3 but I have done for many years now quite successful but it’s not an easy thing to do , our body is ever changing age etc

[Zuzka1 in reply to lola1956]

Yes agree...T3 is all I take now too ...after lots of trial and error!

[ElRR in reply to lola1956]

Hi Lola, could I please ask you about how you have done this? I'm at the point of needing to start this myself, and I am very nervous. Thank you!

[lola1956 in reply to ElRR]

Hello first you must check that all of your vitamin levels are optimum , if not then supplement yourself! I myself started by reducing my levothyroxine by half at a time and adding in T 3 at a 1/4 of25 mg , you should wait 6 weeks each time you do this before you see how you feel, there are many posts on here that can tell you in more detail I’m not an expert merely done it myself slowly and safely!

Also I bought a cheap blood pressure monitor to check my BP was not too high or low !

All of this is not easy or quick but can change your life health wise for the better !

I buy mine abroad but recently was given a T3 prescription by an endocrinologist but unfortunately I could not get it filled but it was proof to me that he thought levothyroxine was not for me either! Good luck and ask as many questions as you like on here someone will always help.

[abirose311]

After 2 decades of thyroid hell, I self medicated with T3. It was the best thing ever! ALL my symptoms abated and I actually felt happy, a long forgotten and wonderful experience!

3 years on, I had it prescribed at Kingston Hospital (my Area Health Authority doesn't supply it) but it was weaker T3 and lots of travelling time. Now I take NDT (from private endo), and supplement with T3 (12.5mcg ), which I buy for myself, when I feel the need, which is maybe 5 out of 7 days.

I was first given T3 by a self medicating friend and now I personally know 4 other people who self medicate with T3.

3 of those supplement their levothyroxine and 1, like myself, takes it with her NDT

I had my thyroid nuked with radioactive iodine in 1990. I trusted doctors then. After decades of being seriously unwell and being told I was correctly medicated (on Levothyroxine) when my body and brain were not in agreement, the person I trust now is myself!