Armour Thyroid back to Levo

[Kisca]

Hi Everyone ,

I’m needing some advice in readiness for my appointment with my GP this Thursday please 🙏

I’m currently taking 1/2 grain of Armour Thyroid privately but I can no longer keep up with the costs of this .

I’ve attached my recent bloods from 26th May this year .

If I take 1/2 grain of Armour what is this equivalent dose in Levo ? Am I better to start at 25mcg ?

Honesty I feel soooo tired atm , brain fog , nails very thin and brittle and one coming off nail bed / depressed 🙈

I have tried Levo before but to be fair never gave it a good try to see how well I converted etc so I’ll chat with GP Thursday…..GP knows I’m on Armour and has suggested before about going on Levo on the NHS

As always any advice / feedback would be appreciated 😃

I’ll also attach my recent vitamin results below .

Thank you all 🦋

[Lalatoot]

I would go for the common starting dose of 50mcg levo assuming you don't have a heart condition.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Standard starter dose levothyroxine is 50mcg

Retest bloods 6-8 weeks after each dose increase in levothyroxine

Work out which brand levothyroxine suits you best and always get same brand at each prescription

Essential to regularly retest vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

What vitamin supplements are you taking

Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

guidelines on dose levothyroxine by weight

Even if we normally start on only 50mcg, most people need to increase levothyroxine dose slowly upwards in 25mcg steps (retesting 6-8 weeks after each increase) until eventually on, or near full replacement dose

NICE guidelines on full replacement dose

nice.org.uk/guidance/ng145/...

1.3.6

Consider starting levothyroxine at a dosage of 1.6 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day (rounded to the nearest 25 micrograms) for adults under 65 with primary hypothyroidism and no history of cardiovascular disease.

Also here

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/hypo...

pathlabs.rlbuht.nhs.uk/tft_...

Guiding Treatment with Thyroxine:

In the majority of patients 50-100 μg thyroxine can be used as the starting dose. Alterations in dose are achieved by using 25-50 μg increments and adequacy of the new dose can be confirmed by repeat measurement of TSH after 2-3 months.

The majority of patients will be clinically euthyroid with a ‘normal’ TSH and having thyroxine replacement in the range 75-150 μg/day (1.6ug/Kg on average).

The recommended approach is to titrate thyroxine therapy against the TSH concentration whilst assessing clinical well-being. The target is a serum TSH within the reference range.

……The primary target of thyroxine replacement therapy is to make the patient feel well and to achieve a serum TSH that is within the reference range. The corresponding FT4 will be within or slightly above its reference range.

The minimum period to achieve stable concentrations after a change in dose of thyroxine is two months and thyroid function tests should not normally be requested before this period has elapsed.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

I’m currently taking 1/2 grain of Armour Thyroid privately but I can no longer keep up with the costs of this .

I’ve attached my recent bloods from 26th May this year .

These results show you are not on high enough dose

No vitamin results?

[Kisca in reply to SlowDragon]

Thanks for your response SlowDragon…..just adding some vitamin results now x

[Kisca in reply to Kisca]

I’m adding pictures of my results but they are just disappearing 🙈

[TiggerMe in reply to Kisca]

You can only add one at a time 😉

[Kisca in reply to SlowDragon]

vitamins

Colour text x

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Kisca]

What B vitamins and how much vitamin D are you currently taking

[Kisca in reply to SlowDragon]

just ordered some iron patches to help raise iron x

Colour text

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Kisca]

Ferritin looks ok

You would need to do full iron panel test before supplementing any iron

Never supplement iron without doing full iron panel test for anaemia first and retest 3-4 times a year if self supplementing.

It’s possible to have low ferritin but high iron

Test early morning, only water to drink between waking and test. Avoid high iron rich dinner night before test

Medichecks iron panel test

medichecks.com/products/iro...