What can I expect being on Levothyroxine into old age?

[ockerdoc]

I was thinking about this last night and was wondering if we have any people on here that have been on levothyroxine in their 70s and beyond. Did you find that you need more or less as you got older? Anything else affected? Cheers.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

ockerdoc

I am in my 70s, have been diagnosed and treated since my mid 20s. Since I discovered, almost 10 years ago after years of never being well, that I was a poor converter and added T3 to my Levo, since knowing where I need my FT4 and FT3 to be then nothing has changed. I occasionally find I need a slight tweak to my meds but nothing drastic.

[ockerdoc in reply to SeasideSusie]

That’s great thanks SeasideSusie and good to know 😁

[waveylines]

Difficult one to answer. Chicken or egg.... As you age it tends to bring with it the wear of the body. And with that comes it's own issues. I'm treated optimally for my thyroid (not done on TSH but my thyroid hormones & the cofactors) but it does not stop the march of time.As for my thyroid replacement hormones.... The dose has stayed the same., results much the same. Slight tweaks usually due to extremes of weather eg very cold in winter or an extended heatwave

I'm in my late 60's. Diagnosed in my 40's.

[RedApple Administrator]

ockerdoc, If you believe the medics, most will say that in old age, we naturally need less thyroid hormone and TSH should be higher. I'm not at all convinced of this, but am not yet old enough to have accumulated any personal proof either way. I wrote a little story in my profile relating to this question. healthunlocked.com/user/Red...

[waveylines in reply to RedApple]

Oh noooo heaven forbid Red Apple. I really hope not!! What do they base this on? Is it a type of quiet euthanasia! 😳🤣😬

[RedApple Administrator in reply to waveylines]

I'm sure there is at least one paper claiming this. If I remember where it is, I'll post it.

Rather than 'quiet euthanasia', I'd call it quiet torture.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to waveylines]

Tania Smith at Thyroid Patients Canada has written about age and TSH

Age bias may hide hypothyroidism under a normal TSH thyroidpatients.ca/2022/07/...

[waveylines in reply to RedApple]

Fascinating! Thanks....

[ockerdoc in reply to RedApple]

Thank you 👍

[pennyannie in reply to ockerdoc]

I was placed on 100 T4 following RAI ablation for Graves Disease in 2005 aged 58:

I ticked over on 125 mcg T4 for several years but at age 65 / 66 my dose was reduced back to 100 mcg despite there being no problem on my side and there began the insidious and ever increasing list of symptoms that were ignored, for the sake of having a TSH in the range.

So, with no answers forthcoming from the medical profession I started researching Graves Disease and fell into this amazing forum and started my own learning curve into my health issues - 10 years too late - but better late than never.

I now self medicate and manage my own thyroid health - and have my brain and independence back.

Details on my profile page - just press on the face alongside my name in this reply.

[Brightness14]

My sister is 79 years old and has been on Levo only since her 40's . Always the same dose it suits her. She is very active and lives on a farm. She still has her thyroid but mine was removed.

[ockerdoc in reply to Brightness14]

Thank you good to hear.

[tattybogle]

i used to be on 150mcg in my late 30's and 40's.

That dose became a bit too much when i was 50.... symptoms of overmedication gradually crept up on me over about a year , while i felt increasingly dreadful, but without anyone realising that overmedication was the issue.

But Menopause was probably the cause of this , so you are safe from that one (estrogen level influences FreeT4 levels by changing the amount of Thyroid Binding Globulin )

Dose was reduced to 125mcg .

Was Ok on that for 3 yrs, then fT4 went way over range for no apparent reason (i felt fine) GP reduced to 112.5 mcg , but fT4 inexplicably went up more, so then reduced to 100mcg..... which brought classic symptoms of hypo back out to play ...,so since then i've been back on 112.5mcg mostly , with occasional forays to 125mcg .

am only 57 though ..so no idea what happens next ... watch this space, lol

[Hylda2]

80 in October! Been on Levo many years, ok I tweak it myself but absolutely fine

[Zephyrbear]

I was prescribed Levothyroxine at diagnosis in 2004, but never did very well on it. Then my old endo (now retired) decided to give me a trial of Liothyronine and my life came back to me. Since then, I have tweaked my doses of both T3 and T4 ( currently 50mcg and 25mcg respectively) myself depending on how I felt and found my own “sweet spot” a few years ago. I can usually feel whether I’m under- or over- medicated and I will make small adjustments in 5mcg increments to my T3 as necessary. Oddly enough, if I try to either increase or reduce my 25mcg daily dose of T4, I can end up feeling very “off” so I don’t change that one at all.

Only you know when something feels good or not, the doctors can only go by the numbers on a screen… I think the former is far more important than the latter, no matter how much ‘education’ the doctor has had!

[serenfach]

Two things happen:-

GPs are even more inclined to ignore you, or put having a leg drop off or similar as "its your age"

Gravity gets stronger. By grunting as I sit down or stand up, it switches gravity off for a split second enabling me to move.

[HeartWoman]

An endocrinologist just told me 2 weeks ago that as we get older we need less thyroid. That seemed like a ridiculous statement in that we need what we need regardless of age.

The same thing happens with women on estrogen. Many doctors want to automatically reduce it based on nothing more but age. Of course this same endocrinologist said she doesn't care about symptoms, only numbers. Yeah, not going back to her.