I have been hypothyroid since 2007 and felt well taking levothyroxine until around 2016 when I started to experience hypo symptoms again.
My private doctor tried me on Erfa NDT and I stayed on it as it helped and then switched to Metavive.
Before I started NDT I never actually found out if I could have felt just as well by simply increasing my levo dose. I wish that I had done that first so that I could find out if I was able to convert T4 to T3 without paying for private medication.
I would like still to find out. I know the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" probably applies but l feel I need to know.
My GP won't prescribe a small dose of levo for me to introduce gradually whilst decreasing my Metavive as my TSH is suppressed. She will only do it if my TSH is raised so that I am no longer "hyperthyroid" (her words), so, she will only do it if I go cold turkey and stop all self-medicating, which I am not prepared to do in case I feel unwell.
When I was taking 100 mg Metavive my free T3 was 3.6 (2.6 - 5.7) and free T4 11.6 (9 -19). I know these values seem low but I felt OK.
If I can get a private prescription for 25 mcg levo from my private doctor, I was proposing to introduce 25 or 12.5 mcg alongside the Metavive and test in 2 months to see what effect it had on my T3 and T4.
If the results show an increase in both then I can reduce the Metavive by a small amount then retest and repeat this procedure over a longish period of time.
The aim is to see if I can stop the Metavive and use levo only provided, and only if, I continue to feel well. At least I can then find out if my conversion is good or not.
I assume that all the time I take Metavive it will possibly continue to cause some TSH suppression. It will be interesting to see what the TSH does.
Does all this sound a reasonable suggestion?