Weaning off T4 levothyroxine

[Kittykatkat]

Has anyone successfully weaned off T4 levothyroxine? Did you manage to get your antibodies down and how did you do it?

[Lalatoot]

Kitty as you mention antibodies I am presuming that you have autoimmune thyroiditis sometimes called Hashimotos. Antibodies are a sign that your thyroid has been attacked by your immune system and damaged as a result. The output of your damaged thyroid has been compromised.

Antibodies clean up the mess by an attack on the thyroid. They do not cause symptoms.

Lifestyle changes such as going gluten free can lessen the frequency of the immune system attacking the thyroid and this would in turn lead to a drop in antibody levels. However, it will not lead to the thyroid repairing itself. What damage has already been done cannot be undone. The only way to replace the hormones a damaged thyroid can no longer make in sufficient quantity is by taking replacement hormones - be that T4 levothyroxine, T3 liothyronine or Natural Desiccated Thyroid NDT.

There are a number of us on here who have, for a number of reasons, ill-advisedly, tapered off levothyroxine.......and made ourselves very ill in the process. When you stop taking levo you feel great - don't know why but you do. After 3 months of feeling great, I became very ill. My TSH was sky high and my ft4 and ft3 were under range. It took me years to recover.

I would advise you to consider other options other than coming of levo such as looking at your ft4 and ft3 levels to see if you are on an adequate dose; checking vitamin levels to see if you can process the thyroid hormones efficiently; considering if you are converting t4 to t3 efficiently by looking at TSH, ft4 and ft3 levels.

Levo might not be making you feel well but coming off it and not replacing it with other forms of thyroid hormone may make you very ill. Stay on it until you can explore what other options will improve your health. There are many on here willing to help you to explore those alternatives based on our own experiences if you can provide more information about your thyroid and vitamin levels and what you have already tried.

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

A diagnosis of hypothyroidism is for life. Is there a reason you want to stop taking Levo?

I have seen a few people think they were wrongly diagnosed or a misguided Endo stops their treatment and I've yet to see it end well.

If you have positive thyroid antibodies then you have Hashi's and its highly likely your thyroid is no longer able to produce the hormone that your body requires.

[Sofie007]

Hello Kittykatkat, have you been able to gather more info on how to wean off? I follow a few functional medicine doctors and they day it is possible for some people. It all depends on what is causing the hashi and how damaged the thyroid is.