Liothyronine 5mcg: I've been changed from... - Thyroid UK

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Liothyronine 5mcg

Viviennet profile image
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I've been changed from (splitting) a 20 mcg to 5mcg doses, but so far have only found brands that contain gelatine. As a vegan, I'm trying to avoid gelatine (& lactose, and certainly mannitol too on health grounds!) - and finding it very difficult to look up a list of ingredients for each brand. Does anyone happen to have a list or be able to point me in the right direction please?

many thanks

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Viviennet
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helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK

helvella's medicines documents (UK and Rest of the World) can be found here:

helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines

helvella has created, and tries to maintain, documents containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.

This link takes you to a page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones.

The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrix for tablets, oral solutions and liothyronine available in the UK.

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

Viviennet profile image
Viviennet in reply to helvella

Many thanks - a great piece of work!

helvella profile image
helvellaAdministratorThyroid UK in reply to Viviennet

The answer you actually want might not be there :-( but I think it is currently complete and, to the best of my knowledge, accurate.

Viviennet profile image
Viviennet in reply to helvella

Thanks. From what i can work out, it's just the morningside brand that would suit me, but my problem now is that the issuing pharmacist won't (for some strange reason)tell me which brand they have in stock to send out to me.

crimple profile image
crimple in reply to Viviennet

Vivienne, Have a look at Sigma Pharma T3

Viviennet profile image
Viviennet in reply to crimple

Thanks, but it seems to contain gelatin.

Fluffysheep profile image
Fluffysheep

When I first got prescribed T3 on the NHS, I was given capsules (probably because they were cheaper than tablets at the time). I wasn't too impressed, as I'm vegetarian, and they all contained gelatine. However, there wasn't much I could do about it, so basically sucked it up.

After a while, thanks to helvella's great updates, I noticed that the price of tablets had come down, and were actually the same, and then slightly cheaper than the tablets. In the meantime, I had moved pharmacies (the one I'd used for years had a sudden complete change of staff and had become a nightmare for getting any medication). I was the only patient on T3 at the new pharmacy (still am), and they had a little bit of trouble getting the T3 the first couple of times, and actually got me tablets instead of capsules. I explained that this was preferable to me as I was vegetarian (and so was the pharmacist it turned out, so he completely understood), so he said he'd do his best to get my tablets every time, but obviously if they were out of stock he'd just get me whatever he could.

Anyway, I've been fortunate enough to get tablets every time. I noticed a few months ago on my patient online account that the GP had done a medication review, and my actual prescription had been changed from capsules to tablets (probably because someone had looked and realised the tablets were cheaper!).

Can't help with the lactose and mannitol thing, but just wanted to let you know that there are some understanding pharmacists out there who can be really helpful and understanding.

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