adverse reactions to Levo

[Yellow1955]

I’m on 125 of thyroxine lots of side effects extremely itchy skin, blurred vision, headaches and digestive problems. Not sure if this is due to getting different brands from pharmacy, is there a particular brand which doesn’t have additives ? I would be grateful for any advise 🙏

[RedApple Administrator]

Yellow1955, The symptoms you describe could be due to being on the wrong dose of levothyroxine, or the particular brand/s you're taking. Or a combination of both!

When were your thyroid levels last tested? Please post the full details of the most recent test so that members can start to get a picture of things.

' is there a particular brand which doesn’t have additives ? '

All levothyroxine whether tablets or liquids will have excipients. Some people do better on certain brands. For example, some people are intolerant to levothyroine tablets which contain lactose, or mannitol.

Post more information about your dose, the brand/s you're currently taking and your test results and members will help.

[Yellow1955]

TSH level 31.30 mU/L

T4 level 2.7 pmol/L

Cholesterol Triglycerides 3.9 mol/L

Vitamin D 25-OH

Serum cortisol 477 nmol/L

Serum creative kinase level 363 u/l

All bloods normal

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Yellow1955]

Are those recent results? Or from time of diagnosis?

 RedApple

You can see what products are available in helvella's medicines documents (UK and Rest of the World) which can be found here:

helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines

helvella has created, and tries to maintain, documents containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.

This link takes you to a page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and Google Drive, and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones.

The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrix for tablets, oral solutions and liothyronine available in the UK.

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

[Yellow1955 in reply to helvella]

recent results 6 weeks ago

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Yellow1955]

Do you have the reference ranges (reference intervals) for those tests?

Even without the specific lab ranges:

A TSH of 31.30 is severely hypothyroid.

A Free T4 of 2.7 is severely hypothyroid.

It would be unusual for someone on 125 micrograms of levothyroxine to be that hypothyroid.

Are you 100% sure that you have posted them accurately?

[Yellow1955 in reply to helvella]

yes definitely posted correctly I’ve been told my levels are quite bad and only just started taking 125 of Levo after these results. But I have really bad itching from head to toe after 6 weeks on this dose.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Yellow1955]

How much levothyroxine were you taking when that blood test was done?

And what brand/s are you taking?

[Yellow1955 in reply to RedApple]

I wasn’t taking any Levo when blood tests were done

[Yellow1955 in reply to RedApple]

mercury 100 wockhardt 25

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Yellow1955]

Six weeks is a reasonable time to have another test.

If you are itching, it could be due to the tablets. You could try taking any ordinary cheap antihistamine (e.g. cetirizine). Not as a long-term solution, but if it helps it suggests that you might not be tolerating some ingredient.

[Yellow1955 in reply to helvella]

doctor has prescribed lactose free thyroxine made by Glenmark I’ve never heard of them has anyone else ? I cannot get them a5 any of the local pharmacies I’ve tried 6 different places. So I’ve got Teva to try until a suitable replacement is found. I’m not sure if it’s additives I’m having a reaction to ? I think all brands of thyroxine in the UK have additives does anyone have advise as to which brand has the least please.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Yellow1955]

Glenmark is listed in my document but it was only available for a few months (last year) and then disappeared. A few members seemed to be happy with it.

I contacted Glenmark recently and they appeared to be re-thinking and suggested that I contact them again in June or July (can't remember which!). Still in my document with some comments saying as above!

helvella's medicines documents (UK and Rest of the World) can be found here:

helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines

helvella has created, and tries to maintain, documents containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.

This link takes you to a page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and Google Drive, and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones.

The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrix for tablets, oral solutions and liothyronine available in the UK.

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

[Yellow1955 in reply to helvella]

well I’ve searched & phoned the emc a company gp’s use for reference which the doctor sent me no luck at all so it will be trial & error now to find a brand that suits me I need one with no additives but not sure there is one

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Yellow1955]

There is NO make without additives. There simply cannot be one.

The amount of levothyroxine in a tablet is around the size of a few tiny crystals of ordinary sugar!

My document does really and truly list EVERY levothyroxine product licensed in the UK. (EMC doesn't list all products. Teva and Accord are not listed. It is worrying and sad that GPs think it might be complete.)

It has a matrix showing which contain lactose, mannitol and acacia.

At present, there is only one which has none of those - Aristo.

[Hidden]

Hi Yellow1955

I know a lot of thyroxine tablets have maize corn as a filler (which I can't have because of irritable/hyperactive reaction + a full body rash). Then there are the medications with more colourings than others.

Perhaps you could try a compounding pharmacist to make up your script?