Ear pain

[Denny39]

Hi,

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you enjoy the festives.

Does anyone experience ear pain when increasing T3?

Thanks .

[DippyDame]

It wouldn't surprise me.

Ear problems are a sign of hypothyroidism.....from childhood earache to hearing loss. Both have affected me,and I'm now reluctantly admitting that I need to take my hearing aids out of the drawer!

It may just be transient as the body adjusts to the added dose....

but also check for symptoms of overmedication which can also affect ears....just in case.

How much T3 or T4/T3 are you taking?

Happy Christmas.

[Denny39 in reply to DippyDame]

last bloods I was taking 87.5 T4 and 20 T3 and TSH was 0.05, T4 15 (10-22) and T3 6.6. (3.1-6.8). This was a last minute appointment with the endo and last T4 dose was 28 hours and last T3 was 18 hours.

I still had very poor stamina so I reduced t4 from 87.5 to 75 3 weeks ago and increased T3 from 20 to 30 over the 3 weeks - split dose. I’ve been on 30 T3 9 days and at the start of this week (Monday) I started to experience neck pain and stiffness. It got really severe yesterday and I thought I had the flu and heart rate went to 120 BPM and vision was blurry.

I bought some deep heat for the neck pain but it didn’t help. In desperation I put the T4 back up from 75 to 87.5. and heart rate went from 120 to 100. Then it’s been uncomfortably high again today but after each dose settled a little.

I’m homozygous CC variant and have low cortisol 172 (196-497) and stage 2 in saliva.

I would maybe eventually like to try T3 only but I’m not sure if the symptoms I described above were from lowering the T4 and my body won’t cope without it.

The ear pain started when I added t3 but it’s manageable for now compared to other symptoms.

Thanks

[DippyDame in reply to Denny39]

I would suggest that increasing 20mcg T3 to 30mcg over 3 weeks is too fast.... while reducing 87.5mcg T4 to 75mcg at the same time

We are advised to change only one thing at a time to give the body a better chance of adjusting.

Previous to that increase you say last bloods I was taking 87.5 T4 and 20 T3 and TSH was 0.05, T4 15 (10-22) and T3 6.6. (3.1-6.8).

At that point your T3 was at the top of the range yet you have now added a further 10mcg T3.

Resting heart rate of 120mcg is too fast...normal RHR is 60 -100bpm

This may be causing pressure in your earsf

This RHR indicates overmedication as does the fact that adding another 10mcg will have raised your FT3 over range.

So, 75mcg T4 + 30mcg T3 which is a large dose appears to be causing overmedication.

Your symptoms appear to be the consequence... rather than the reduction of 87.5mcg to 75mcg T4

Poor stamina can be caused by over, as well as under, medication

T3 has to be treated with respect and any increase needs to be low and slow....not 10mcg over 3 weeks!

I have the Dio2 snp/ homozygous too, and I also have a form of Thyroid Hormone Resistance which requires high dose T3 (c100mcg) My RHR is 65bpm and I have no symptoms of overmedication.

My thyroid journey is recorded in my bio.

I'd suggest you now consider adjusting /reducing your dose.

You may find these links helpful...

thyroidpatients.ca/2019/08/...

academic.oup.com/jcem/artic...

Sorry it's a bit of a rant but hope something resonates.

Happy Christmas!

[Denny39 in reply to DippyDame]

Happy Christmas too and thank you for your reply.

My resting heart rate yesterday settled at 73 on my watch,

But on the blood pressure monitor that I lent from family and on the watch it was spiking between 100 to 120 a lot of the time during the day, while I walking in the house or wrapping a present. I had to keep stopping and resting.

Thanks for sharing the links.

You said in your bio after 7 weeks on T3 only you felt signs of improvement / recovery. I am not planning on this anytime soon until I settle on combination and see how I go but can I ask how you transitioned to T3 only and if you had any stiffness when lowering T4?

I said in the previous reply I put T4 back up from 75 to 87.5 in desperation as I was feeling very stiff with severe neck pain and I noticed (even though it has been 3 days) it has helped, if that is even possible in 3 days?

My thinking is my body might not be able to cope with T3 only and I could always need T4.

Thank you 🎄

[DippyDame in reply to Denny39]

I'm not convinced you need T3-only either but I was trying to give you enough info to help you understand what might be best for you.

T3-only is the last resort after all other options have failed.

As discussed your T3 dose is too high

What makes it more difficult is that we are all different with different needs so what works for A might be useless for B. Trial and error is then the way forward until the sweet spot is reached.

Important to change only one hormone dose at a time otherwise it's difficult to know what effect each has had.

I'd start by maintaining your T4 dose at 87.5mcg and reducing your T3 by 6.25mcg and see how you feel after 2 weeks then reduce by another 6.25mcg...total T3 reduction of 12.5mcg. I'd be inclined to hold that dose for 6 weeks then test again. By that time the hormones should have settled into your system giving you a reliable result under correst testing protocol.

With that result to hand and based on any symptoms you have you can then start to " fine tune" your dose.

Others may offer other suggestions.

Hope covid isn't too nasty and clears soon.

[Denny39 in reply to DippyDame]

Done a test today and I have covid.

[JAmanda]

yes, and it’s a sign of over medication (for me). Your numbers on 20 t3 were high - probably over range given it was 18 hours since you’d taken it. So going to 30 was unnecessary. For me for stamina higher t4 is the thing. I’d increase your Levo and halve your lio to 15 max. It’s worth remembering that it actually takes your body quite a while to feel the benefit of dosevincreases. Weeks and months.

[Denny39 in reply to JAmanda]

thanks for replying.

Do you have the dio gene homozygous too?

[JAmanda in reply to Denny39]

I don’t know.

[Farrugia]

Hi Denny39 - I had earache for a long time on Levothyroxine and I've found that now I've switched to Armour NDT it's quite a bit better. No change to the tinnitus unfortunately.

One thing I found when I first switched to NDT was that I got headaches, unusual for me and they were especially bad with a dose increase. That seems to have settled down now. It seems it takes time for the body to adjust to changes in dosage so maybe you have to give it a bit of time. Hope your earache gets better soon.