What does it mean to decrease ose of thyroxine slowly

[redhead41]

It is generally recommended to reduce thyroxine slowly by 25mcg. Is this reducing each daily dose by 25 mcg or reducing the weekly dose by 25 mcg?I realize it will depend to a certain extent on how above range the result is.

thanks Sue

[Hidden]

It's reducing your total dose by 25mcg and retesting in 8 weeks to see how your levels look. If you're still over you repeat. You may only need to reduce by 12.5mcg.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

How much levothyroxine are you currently taking

Do you have recent test results that show you need to reduce dose?

Always test thyroid levels early morning, ideally before 9am and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

Are vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 all at good levels

Do you feel over medicated

25mcg is quite a large reduction. You may only need to reduce by 12.5mcg …..and even then, perhaps not every day

Bloods should be retested 6-8 weeks after reducing

[Lalatoot]

Redhead it means that the maximum daily dose reduction should be no more than 25mcg. 150mcg daily could be reduced 125mcg daily and then kept at 125mcg daily for 6 to 8 weeks then blood tests to see thyroid hormone levels.Any higher daily reduction is hard for the body to adjust to. It is important also to then wait for the effects of the reduction to happen.

Folks tend to know their own bodies and might opt for a gentler reduction so they might reduce by 25mcg for say 2 doses per week - so their total weekly levo would only have reduced by 50mcg.

Others might reduce daily by 12.5mcg. It is what suits each person and their situation.

[Catseyes235]

Why are you reducing your dose? I was told to reduce mine from 150mcg because of TSH results alone. Turned out I’m a poor converter so just felt more and more hypo. It’s now been accepted by my listening Endo (now there’s a novelty!). that my TSH is incredibly low. Just be aware that TSH is not the gold standard for us all. Use your free T3 and T4 as a guide. Good luck.

[redhead41 in reply to Catseyes235]

Thank you all. T4 has gone above the range, T3 is still a bit low and TSH is 0.6. Ideally need to source some T3 but this is proving difficult. All vitamins are optimal, gf, soy free and very little dairy.

[Catseyes235 in reply to redhead41]

After many years of getting progressively hypo as GPS reduced my Thyroxine due to TSH ranging fro 0.01 to 0.2 over twenty years I at last plucked up courage to ask to see and Endo. Saw one within 2 weeks and during lockdown. He listened and said would I like to try T3 (which private blood test had suggested 3 years ago) . After a year of dosage adjustment to stop palpitations I’ve settled on 100mcg Thyroxine daily plus an extra 1 x 50mcg weekly, and 2.5 mcg T3 in morning and around 3.75 at night. Works for me and everyone’s is different. Some do well on just T3 but the 5mcg for me made me have palpitations that seemed to rock my whole body! It’s been a long road but feel I’ve got there .....eventually!