Carbimazole

[Bjblade5]

I have just been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and will be starting Carbimazole, 5mg twice a day. I must admit its rather scary reading the leaflet that comes with it about all the possible side effects. I've never taken any medication throughout my 59 yrs apart from antibiotics. Am i just being silly? Has anyone else had any of these side affects and if so how have you dealt with them.

[pennyannie]

Hello Bjblade and welcome to the forum :

There is nothing silly in being thorough and reading the PIL leaflet that should come with any prescription medication.

Carbimazole is an Anti Thyroid and generally prescribed to semi-block your own daily production of thyroid hormones so I presume you went to the doctors with some symptoms and a blood test was run and that the results showed over range T3 and T4 readings with a TSH stuck down under the range.

What symptoms are you dealing with and can you share with forum members these blood test results and ranges ?

There should also be some antibody readings there - expressed as either a TPO: TgAB: or a TRab or a TSI and these are run to identify if you are dealing with an Auto Immune Disease.

I was diagnosed in my late 50's and placed on Carbimazole and back to work within the week with my only new symptom, insomnia, being relieved.

i felt very well on this drug but there is alternative should Carbimazole not suit you - PTU - for short - Propylthiouracil.

[PurpleNails Administrator]

Welcome to forum.

Many people do not read the patient information leaflet (PIL) but it’s good you have, you can be aware of side effects & can be vigilant for them. Fortunately the serious side affects are rare.

Controlling high thyroid levels is important.

I have taken carbimazole for over 4 years. Others take it long term even decades.

2x 5mg per day is a low starting dose.

Do you have any blood test results? Very important to see what levels your FT4 & FT3 are. Sometimes it not that thyroid hormones are over range it’s that the pituitary hormone (TSH) thyroid stimulating hormone, which signals thyroid is low & doctors incorrectly assume you have hyper.

Has the cause of hyper been confirmed? Usually by antibody testing.

You are entitled to you blood test results, online access is useful to set up is available but you can also ask for a printout of results. Never accept verbal / written results you need the lab range with results & this can vary depending on lab.

[Bjblade5 in reply to PurpleNails]

Thank you for your reply, yes the diagnosis was made two weeks ago. I had covid last year in September and I had results of T4 21.5.... T3 14.1.... TSH 0.01... they told me that it could of been a ghost reading due to the virus. The results this time are T4 38....T3 14.1...TSH 0.005