Hi there, I am a 55 year old male who has been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I have been prescribed a daily dose of 25mcg Levothyroxine. I am struggling to take this medication because of strange side effects. I have stopped taking it for the last couple of weeks. I was going to try and resume taking the pill again to see if things are any different. I really am at the end of my tether - should I take it or not?!?
I am so tired all the time. I recently had a telephone appointment with my GP. She asked me to have a blood test to see what my Ferritin levels were doing. The result came back as 67(reference range 22-322). I thought that this was a little bit at the low end of normal and she may have suggested taking some medication to increase the level. Nevertheless, during my follow up appointment she said that this result was absolutely fine and I did not require any treatment. I would be interested to hear from anybody who thinks this level is acceptable. I'm relatively new to all of this. I welcome any feedback. Many thanks.
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Henbud
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Can you share your thyroid blood test results, ie TSH, T4 and (if available) T3 (with ranges in brackets), as this information would be really useful for members give advice. If you don’t have a copy, you can request one from your GP.
How long have you been taking Levothyroxine for hypothyroidism?
Hyperthyroidism is an over active thyroid and you would likely be prescribed Carbimazole once your blood tests were run and analysed.
Hypothyroidism is an under active thyroid and you would likely be prescribed T4 Levothyroxine once your blood tests were run and analysed.
Do you have copies of your blood test results and ranges please - if so please share with forum members.
Your ferritin is in the NHS range so you don't qualify for a prescription - however many of us need to self supplement ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D to support our core strength and enable better conversion of the T4 into T3 which is the active hormone that runs the body.
Rule of thumb, you need to be around a good 50% through the vitamin and mineral ranges :
As a woman, I need my ferritin at around 100 : folate at around 20 : active B12 at around 75 ++ ( serum B12 500 ++ ) and vitamin D at around 100 :
25 mcg T4 is a very low starter dose and the T4 needs to build up in your body with repeat blood tests every 6-8 weeks and increments of T4 x 25 mcg T4 each time until you feel the relief of symptoms and settled on a dose of Levothyroxine that works for you.
Ferritin is recommended to be half way through range, so with your range that would be around 172 although I have seen it said that 150 is a good level for males. So yes, you are correct, your ferritin level is on the low side. Doctors just look at the range and as long as you are somewhere within the stated range then as far as they are concerned everything is fine, they don't have much understanding of optimal levels.
You can help raise your level by eating liver regularly, maximum 200g per week due to it's high Vit A content, also liver pate, black pudding, and including lots of iron rich foods in your diet
Don't consider taking an iron supplement unless you do an iron panel consisting of serum iron, transferrin saturation percentage, total iron binding capacity plus ferritin. If you already have a decent level of serum iron and a good saturation percentage then taking iron tablets can push your iron level even higher, too much iron is as bad as too little.
25mcg is a very low starter dose, usually reserved for children, the elderly or those with a heart condition. If you don't come into the elderly or heart condition categories there is no reason why you couldn't have been started on 50mcg Levo.
As you are having side effects from your Levo, what brand are you taking? The fillers sometimes cause adverse reactions with some people and Teva is the one most mentioned here for side effects.
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