Adding T3

[SovietSong]

Hi everyone, I decided to trial a little T3(which I received today) to add to my daily levo dose of 125mcg.I've been on every dose of Levo from 100 to 150 but T3 levels don't change much and though I'm greatly improved a few hypo symptoms linger about.The T3 are 25mcg and I was thinking of starting with 12.5 daily alongside the levo.Would this sound like a decent starting off point? Also can I expect any symptoms when first introducing it? Any advice would be helpful, many thanks.

[Buddy195 Administrator]

I am a fan of low and slow, so would recommend adding 5mcg initially (am) and when well tolerated add another 5mcg (pm) before moving to 12.5mcg (or higher) if needed. I found that a small amount of Liothyronine made a huge difference after a couple of months, but didn’t have the ‘eureka’ feeling immediately that some members report. Other members also take all their liothyronine dose in one go, but many (like me) find a split dose better suits. It’s very much trial and error to see what works best for you SovietSong.

[SovietSong in reply to Buddy195]

That’s great Buddy thank you.May I ask how you are now with regards to symptoms since introducing T3?

[Buddy195 Administrator in reply to SovietSong]

I feel like my health has been restored since I’ve been on combination treatment and have optimised key thyroid vitamins👍

[J972]

Hi, I started adding T3 in October (just posted about my experiences so far in fact 😬) and I personally couldn’t tolerate doses above 3ish mcg at a time. But I have found this whole thyroid medication business tricky to navigate anyway, with lots of side effects. I have low/sub optimal cortisol, which might be to blame.

Anyway, I started off by cutting my 25mcg T3 tablets into eighths, each eighth gave me approximately 3mcg. I started off with this amount, held for a couple of weeks then added another eighth. Repeated, adding another eighth until I had reached approximately 9mcg. I held that until testing last week. I settled on that amount because it seemed to be a good amount when compared with other users of T3 on the forum. The incorporation of each eighth was not without side effects: slight jitters, low level sleep disturbance. I had a similar experience starting Levo. I seem very sensitive. I couldn’t increase my dose of levo beyond 62.5mcg due to side effects. But I may well be barking up the wrong tree with that. I wonder now whether I should have persevered with the Levo, rather than starting T3 - it’s much stronger, which I think you’ll notice.

Anyway, that’s my experience. I wish you all the very best with it!

[SovietSong in reply to J972]

Many thanks for that reply J972 really appreciated.

[YoanaG in reply to J972]

Hi there. I have similar story as you. Very sensitive when increasing Levo, anxiety, insomnia, muscle pain. My ft4 is now not optimal but decided to add t3 as I feel awful after the last increase of Levo. How are the things with your experience, any changes and advice?

[Sparklingsunshine]

I think 12.5mcg might be a little ambitious, like you I sourced my own Lio, I was advised to quarter the tablets, add 6.25mcg daily and then if all OK after a week or two consider adding another 6.25mcg in, then wait the usual 6-8 weeks and retest.

I'm currently splitting my T3 into two daily doses. I'm due my first test on both thyroid hormones in a couple of weeks.

When on combo therapy there are a lot of tweaks to be made.

[SovietSong in reply to Sparklingsunshine]

Thanks Sparklingsunshine,look forward to seeing your upcoming results.

[Allergy in reply to Sparklingsunshine]

Hi I take 125 micro grams of thyroxine and 30 micro grams of t3 take 20 am then 10 pm

Mine on prescription

[Lalatoot]

Based on my experience of starting t3 I would start on a quarter tablet. Keep on that dose for 1 or 2 weeks. If all is well add in another quarter tablet and wait 2 weeks Increases and decreases in t3 dose are best done in small steps so a quarter of a tablet or 5mcg or 6.25mcg every 2 weeks.

You can stop increasing when you wish but don't go beyond a total daily dose of 1 tablet initially. Then wait 6 to 8 weeks and do bloods.

I increased until I was on a total daily dose of 20mcg. I then spent time gradually decreasing the dose. It turned out that I only needed a small amount of t3. 7.5mcg t3 daily was enough to raise my ft3 from 17% through range to 72% through range measured at the average. Knowing that now I wish I'd stopped at half a tablet waited 8 weeks and then done bloods. It would have saved me the palaver of undoing the increases.

[SovietSong in reply to Lalatoot]

Many thanks Latatoot,much appreciated.

[Tythrop]

Good luck . Please post about any changes to symptoms

[SlowDragon Administrator]

What are your most recent Ft4 and Ft3 results

You might want to very slightly reduce levothyroxine first …..but depends how high Ft4 was

[SovietSong in reply to SlowDragon]

Hi SlowDragon I had been on 135 daily where my last bloods were T4 81% through range and T3 54%.No matter what dose I tried I couldn’t get the T3 number to rise and few symptoms persisted.Before all this started the last dose I felt well on was 125 daily so I thought going back to this old dose and adding a little T3 would do the trick.

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to SovietSong]

Sounds a good plan

[FallingInReverse]

I went from 50 mcg Levo daily to 25 mcg Levo + 10 T3 (5 in the morning, 5 at night) with no instruction or warning.

I have slowly worked back to 62.5 Levo and same 10 mcg T3. I’m pretty sure I’m still on average undermedicated (testing soon).

From my experience:

1) Although not sure if it was the Levo too low or the T3 too much - adding 10 mcg T3 all at once was terrible. Heart racing/palpitations for probably 6 months until really just recently I’ve noticed I’m going days without that symptom. Again - could just be undermedicated, but it started notably with the T3 if I recall correctly. I hate it almost the most out of all my symptoms.

2) I also noticed with my symptom journal that I was falling asleep at about 2-3pm every day. So I did some research on the 2-hour-after-dose peak and 6-ish hour total duration of effect- I split my morning to 2.5 mcg at 6-7 am and 2.5 at about noon, and the need to nap in the afternoon disappeared! So that was cool.

Personally, if I could do it all over again, I would default to chopping up into those 2.5 mcg doses and go slow slow slow increasing.

[SovietSong in reply to FallingInReverse]

Thanks FallingInReverse, great info there.

[Goldengirl01]

hi there, I was put on 100mcg straight after a thyroidectomy in 2018 and took me a little while to get used to taking a tablet for life, but, I wasn’t feeling right, I couldn’t explain it so I came on here, told them how I felt and was told I should try t3 and was told it wouldn’t be easy to get it over here due to cost. My dr and local hospital wouldn’t prescribe it because of expense so I asked to be referred to another hospital. I went to my appt. At the hospital Armed with confidence and knowledge gained from here it took approx 15 minutes for them to agree to prescribe t3 for me and iv never looked back. I started on 20mcg foolishly as that’s what the endo prescribed, it gave me a horrendous headache, I was advised here to go low and slow so I started at 2.5mcg, that was better then gradually and I mean gradually I upped to 5mcg etc until I reached 10mcg and there I stayed. It can be up and down with medication and I have tried before to up t3 a bit but it doesn’t suit me so I leave it as it is. My Endo more or less leaves me alone apart from having the odd blood test she is happy to see things are fine. Sometimes you may have to educate your dr. About thyroid and its meds because some are really not knowledgeable about the thyroid as their job is mainly diabetes. I wish you well on your journey to feeling well.

[SovietSong in reply to Goldengirl01]

Much appreciated Goldengirl, glad to hear the T3 has been a success for you. Low and slow seems to be the way.

[SilverSavvy in reply to SovietSong]

Agree with everyone here that low and slow IS the best way. I was given 15mg to take daily straight away but, following advice on this forum, I started at 2.5 twice daily. Five months in, am finding my optimum dose is about 7.5mcg daily and 75mcg levo. Debating an increase to 10 split twice over the day but symptoms of sleepiness etc are mostly gone so am wondering whether to stabilise there for a bit.

I was on 100 levo before that but not converting well. My percentage stats for T4 and T3 were very similar to yours.

I tried going up further with T3 at about month 3 but had all the overmedication symptoms other people mentioned. Goodness knows what would have happened if I'd started straight on 15mcg.

My advice is, work up slowly - keep testing to see your percentages are balanced - and make sure your vits are optimised. They make a massive difference in my case. Family are all short of B12/Folate etc.

But most of all, listen to the sages on this forum. I am still swimming in the shallows in terms of experience, but they have been absolute lifesavers to me. So much more knowledge gained from them than the Endo.

[SovietSong in reply to SilverSavvy]

Thanks SilverSavvy, great advice there.I really don't know where we would be if not for this forum.

[Katherine1234]

Hi SolvietSong, my endo cut my T4 down from 100mcg to 50mgs and added 10mcg of T3. I felt pretty good for 2 weeks. Waited for jitters after first dose, did not get any. Alas then I went super hypothyroid, hair brittle and falling out, no appetite, awful pains in the bottom of my feet, lower legs and knees which is a bad hypothyroid symptoms for me. After advice from here I upped my T4 up to 75mcg. Not a lot of difference, I do not convert T4 to T3 well and I have low cortisol. A few weeks later I upped T3 to 15mcg. 2 weeks after that I upped T3 again to 20mcgs. Been a lot better. Still no jitters in fact my low heart rate feels stronger and has settled at 70/72 resting instead of 55/60. I know longer have air hunger in the night. My very low blood pressure has come up slightly, I know longer pass out when standing. I do have a blood test next week which will be interesting. The trouble is I do not see endo until beginning of April and it appears that he is treating me blood tests every 6 weeks like I am on T4 only

I am probably someone who is going to have to be on about 30mcg of T3 a day. To feel so much better.

[SovietSong in reply to Katherine1234]

Thanks so much for that reply Katherine.You sound as if you are heading in the right direction.Defo involves a lot of tweaking.

[Kimkat]

Hi can I ask where you got your T3 from?