Low dose Naltrexone

[Lilly12255]

Those taking LDN: how quickly did you increase your dose? Can you go from 0 to 4.5mg in 3 weeks?

[Ezzie33]

Why the rush? The recommendation is "low & slow". I increased by 0.5mg a week. Had mild side effects each time for a couple of days then it settled down.

You "can" go up to 4.5mg in 3 weeks but chances are you'll suffer extra side effects & possibly stop taking it because of that. Be patient & give it chance to work.

[Lilly12255 in reply to Ezzie33]

The reason is that it will make my tsh unstable and I need a stable tsh to have an embryo transfer in December. If I increase over 1 month, then in will be at 4.5mg by 5 November. But I assume it takes time to change the tsh, and I don’t want the tsh to be changing by start of Dec.

[Lilly12255 in reply to Ezzie33]

Dis the side effects appeared straight away?

[Ezzie33 in reply to Lilly12255]

Within a few hours - I take it at night before bed & had a spell of waking up around 3 am.

Thing with LDN is everyone seems to respond differently so you don't know how it will affect you (or if it will help at all) unless you try it. It can take a while (months) to find the right dose for yourself, and for the LDN to work. Again it all depends on the person.

Providing your prescriber allows, you could actually even just go straight to 4.5 mg. It's just not recommended because of the increased risk of bad side effects, but it doesn't mean you can't....If you normally suffer when starting new medicine, start lower (even down to 0.5 mg). I started at 1.5 mg because I normally have an ok tolerance, and have spoken to someone who started at 3 mg a day dose.

I'll admit I know nothing about the effect LDN has on TSH (I take it to help with M.E.). Might be worth reaching out to the LDN Research Trust?

There's also a very active facebook group LDN for CFS (or something like that, I can look up the full name if you need ). Yes, it's specific for people with CFS but there's a lot of questions about dosing/side effects/increasing so still might be a useful resource for you.

Good luck!

[Millsykimmy]

Hi Lilly12255 ,I am in a similar boat as you. I have a high TSH but would like to have a FET next month. How was your LDN dosage and how did it help? Did you try Levothyroxine at the same time to lower your TSH level?