Do hypothyroid patients need T3 if not improvin... - Thyroid UK
Do hypothyroid patients need T3 if not improving on T4?
American guidance says you shouldn't take T3 if you are 70+. What are we to do? Do we just suddenly not need it any more? Looks like I have 3 years of good quality life left. Is this guidance applicable in the UK too?
I don’t know if it’s a symptom or just me. When I was really bad I felt like time was running out and I looked around desperately all the time for something I wanted to do but in fact discovered I could not physically do anything anyway - like a bucket list. I don’t get this so much now but it’s still there. I use it as a marker for when I know I am not ‘right’ or maybe particularly bad! I am hoping to self medicate (with the help and advice available on this forum) with T3 soon and I am definitely in the category you highlighted from the slideshow. Like you I wondered about it. My sense is that I don’t give a flying …. I have wasted years, many years. I might be considered an old fogie but somewhere in me I don’t feel like that. I therefore won’t be paying any attention to this ‘advice’. I was very pleased to start my levothyroxine and it has helped. However there has been a loss of hope because I remain far from ‘right’. I still experience debilitating physical symptoms which frankly I think create a lot of my negative thinking processes. It’s eating away at my very elan vital. I will be no worse off than I am now, if it fails or gives me symptoms I don’t want. I have had horrible heart symptoms coming off useless heart meds and I would not like a repeat of that but I will handle it or not. I am not looking to fulfil a bucket list as such. I would like to have a shower that did not feel like I am wasting precious energy, or make a meal that did not take up my whole day. I would like to walk along the beach with my husband and grandchildren. I ‘d like to not worry about falling over outside and feel the shame of it and be told it’s my age, my weight, my posture. Between the utter boredom of not being able to do what I want/need to do and the loss of hope …….. No, that bit of ‘advice’ shows no perception whatsoever of what living with hypothyroidism actually entails. They are just not hearing us. I don’t want their practised smugness, an attempt at showing they (doctors) care. They just don’t and even worse, some of them seem to be enjoying the havoc they wreak on us by not medicating us properly. Did I say too much?
As far as I know - if in UK - we would get T3 prescribed until we die.
I do not believe the statement that after 70+ you shouldn't take T3 as I am fit and well and symptom-free and T3 restored my health completely and have no symptoms and heartbeat is normal. On levo heartbeat went sky-high.
In the UK - we get prescribed what suits the hypo patient (except with reluctance re T3) (due to its cost) but it is now prescribed more often as the purchase cost has reduced.
Excellent. However at my age I can’t afford to hang around any more. There is no evidence in my area that T3 prescriptions are increasing. The stats look like only 10 people in a very concentrated large population are receiving it. I have no faith that anyone medical is happy to continue withT3 or even often T4 sometimes. On this forum alone, people are reporting reductions in their Medications. Other forums too. According to important people it’s not the cost of T3, it’s that they are peddling it does not work. Until that is tackled many of us are worrying about our futures.
When I was first diagnosed (had to diagnose myself) a couple of hours after GP phoned to tell me I had no problems.
You can click on my name and it will take you to my page and you can read about my journey to be diagnosed as having hypothyroidism.
I have now been fit and well for a few years now and that's because T3 works for me,
Thank you shaws. At the moment I wait with bated breath for my next set of results and the arrival of my T3 from abroad. Your confirmation of the effects of T3 keep me going. Your journey has been difficult but heartening for us all.
Thank you and all of us who don't do well on levo wonder why doctors have not been duly informed on 'how to diagnose' and 'how to treat patients with hypothyroidism.
If my local doctor phoned to tell me that 'your TSH is too low and FT3 too high and I responded 'it is because I am taking T3 and not T4. GPs response 'but T3 converts to T4' - No doctor that's wrong was my response.
I sincerely hope your new T3 will suit you and restore your health.
I really am puzzled that 'experts' who are supposed to be knowledgeable about hormones make stupid statements about prescribing to older people.
Where do they find the scientific evidence or do they just make it up.
How many 70's plus have dropped dead due to taking T3. Many people do feel well and energetic. In fact, I feel that if over 70's are prescribed T3 they would probably feel much better than on levothyroxine only.
I, for one, cannot take levo as I become very unwell.
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