T3- Tiromel - why is my hair shedding/falling out?

[rm411]

Hi, I have recently found a safe source of t3. The brand is Tiromel 25mg. I have been struggling on t4 alone for many years now but doctor/endo won't help me as my labs appear OK to them. However I have had symptoms of weight gain, struggling to loose weight no matter what I do, joint and bad muscle pain. Lethargic and quite forgetful. I started taking one tablet and a lot of my symptoms seemed to improve so I was very happy. However my hair has started to shed more than normal. It's not falling out in clumps or anything but just more hair loss than normal. Has anyone else experienced this? I have stopped taking it for now but I really want to continue as everything else was improving. Would maybe lowering the dose to half a tablet help? Is 25mg a high does? I know t3 is strong. I look forward to hearing others opinions on this as I'm at a loss 🙂

[pennyannie]

Hello Rm411 and welcome to the forum :

No thyroid hormone replacement works well until the core strength vitamins and minerals - those of ferritin, folate, B12 and vitamin D are up and maintained at optimal levels - which we can advise on.

Did you run a blood test prior to starting the T3 - so we have some idea where your T3 and T4 were and where they likely need to be to relieve your symptoms of hypothyroidism ?

T3 is the active hormone and said to be around 4 times more powerful than T4 which is a pro-hormone and needs to be converted in the body into T3:

So taking 25mcg T3 is around - similar to - the function of around 100 mcg 4 :

Your hair loss could be many things - but low iron stores comes to mind and or thyroid - do you have a diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroid Auto Immune disease ?

[Brightness14]

Your body is probably in shock because T3 is such a strong hormone that's why your hair could be falling out. It takes time to adjust to T3 most people start on a very low dose i.e. 5mcg to start and work up slowly.

I started with just 6.25mcg i.e. 1 x 25 mcg T3 cut into four pieces. Your could take more than 6.25 mcg once your body has adjusted. Most people split the dose 2 to3 times a day.

[Sparklingsunshine]

Some questions here, are you taking T3 only, or Levo and T3? If T3 only then unless you dropped Levo down or stopped it altogether before commencing T3 you could be taking too much thyroid hormone.

Hair loss can happen when under or over medicated. If you are on combi therapy with Levo then normally we only add 5mcg or in your case 6.25mcg, quarter of a tablet, once a day for 2 weeks before adding another quarter. Then stay on this dose and test bloods 6-8 weeks later.

T3 is potent stuff and dose has to be raised gradually. Plus its possible that after years on just T4 your body has got used to running on lowered thyroid hormones and adding too much T3 too soon can cause your body to go into shock.