Levothyroxine

[plainsanejane]

Hi,

I live abroad but before I left, my doc put me on 75 mg levo. I was on it for a couple years. But my pharmacy ran out of 75 so they gave me 100mg. Since I knew very little about hypothyroidism, I started taking the 100.

After a few weeks I began pooping five times a day. Had mushy stools all the time and leakage (sorry to gross you out here). I didn't put two and two together and thought maybe I had gluten intolerance because I was eating tons of bread. So I stayed off gluten for a month, which kind of helped but not so much.

Finally I though, gosh maybe I am taking too much levo. Then I went down to 50mg, and things are better. I will be back in the States in a few months for a check up, but has anyone experience five bowel movement a day or the like on a too-high levo dose?

I also have mushy stools on 75 and better stools on 50.

thanks

[DippyDame]

That was very irresponsible dispensing! I'd be complaining.

Didn't they suggest you cut the tablets?

You appear to be overmedicated on 100mcg levo and the loose stools are a fairly common symptom

This may help...

restartmed.com/levothyroxin...

. Diarrhea

Next up is diarrhea or loose stools in general.

Thyroid hormone, and, therefore, levothyroxine, help to control the kinetics of your bowels.

The kinetics of your bowel simply refers to how quickly your intestinal tract is moving.

The more thyroid hormone you take the faster your bowels will move and the less time your “food” will stay in there.

More thyroid hormone and levothyroxine = looser stool

Less thyroid hormone (or hypothyroidism) = more solid stool

In this way, hypothyroidism tends to lead to constipation and hyperthyroidism tends to lead to diarrhea.

But, of course, this all exists on a spectrum and it is proportional to your dose.

What do I mean?

If your dose of levothyroxine is only mildly elevated then you may only experience slightly loose stools.

If, on the other hand, you are taking way too much levothyroxine, then you might experience full-blown diarrhea.

[plainsanejane in reply to DippyDame]

Maybe fifteen years ago, I went to a doc for a physical. The nurse told me I was low thyroid but that was that. Nothing more was said. I said, oh low thyroid and didn't think it was serious because neither the doc or the nurse told me what it meant. I travelled to Russia a few years later and got very sick with the worst flu ever. The nurse who took my blood there told me I had a low thyroid, and I said, yeah I've heard that before. But she didn't say anything else and that was that. No warnings were given me either time, and no information about what a low thyroid meant was given me. Only a couple years ago when my thyroid was so low it was causing depression, suicidal throughs, hair loss, heart palpitations did a new doctor explain to me what was going on and forced me to get on medication. I look back at the first doctor in Oregon and am amazed she just let me walk out of there without medication. Some doctors just aren't on the ball, or they think we know everything they do. Now I do a ton of googling to figure stuff out before I go to a doctor. It amazes me, though, how going from 75mg to 100mg caused me to poop five times or more a day. I honestly thought I was dying there for a while.

[DippyDame in reply to plainsanejane]

Yes, T3 is a very potent medication.

Shocking that you were left so long without correct treatment....but sadly not so surprising!

Thank goodness for the internet!