Its ironic that I haven’t posted on here for months as I’ve felt reasonably well, and then I post twice within a week!
So having been fine and fairly steady for quite a long time on T3 only, suddenly last night I became dizzy about an hour after taking my evening dose.
Then again this morning, woke fine, took morning dose, had breakfast etc and over an hour later developed crazy dizziness that lasted until around 130pm. It left me with a dull headache.
My heart rate was maybe slightly lower than expected for going about my day at around 55-60bpm, but not spectacularly low. It did pick up later in the day as I felt better though, and was then around 75bpm which is more like me when moving about etc.
I’m struggling to explain the dizziness. I agent done bloods but recent done a couple of weeks back were fine. Dose was the same, timing the same, etc etc.
Can anyone guide me at all? I’m assuming it’s pretty much caused by the T3 as the timing of the dizziness coming on fits with the timing of the T3 kicking in, but why?
I’ve just taken tonight evening dose but tbh as I’m still feeling the effects of being so off earlier in the day I’d quite happily have missed it. But then if the effects are from my levels being low, that wouldn’t help!
This thyroid journey is such an eventful one, keeps you guessing!
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Murphysmum
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I think when we take thyroid medication—especially T3–we’re always looking to attribute symptoms to it. That’s probably a legacy of expecting our doctors to go ballistic because we dare to ignore their advice and dark warnings about suppressed TSH. No matter how much we try to ignore those thoughts they slip on through, especially when we’re feeling low.
But my gut feeling is that this may have nothing to do with your thyroid hormone levels at all. Could it be a virus you’ve picked up?
Maybe. I have alway had dizziness as a symptom even way back when I was on levo, (even then the Dr dismissed it 😂 now I think about it) so o guess you’re right, we do naturally look to blame that.
It just feels thyroidy to me. Although normally it passes within an hour or so, and I just sigh and decide that that’s life, but this morning it was particularly bad and persistent. I did actually wonder if it could be an inner ear thing for a wee while until I clocked my low heart rate and then I put 2n2 together.
You could be right though, maybe it’s not that at all. We’ll see, I took my evening dose a wee while ago (reluctantly) and so I’m now trying to distract myself so I don’t think myself dizzy! 😂
Aww, it’s a rotten feeling isn’t it? Just been reading back through some of your posts to get a feel for where you’re at.
Perimenopause might have something to do with all this. I think it may be a factor in what’s happened with me lately (I recently reduced my dose a bit after years of being stable at 3 grains of NDT).
This stuff is hard when you have to figure it out by yourself. But my local surgery doesn’t have a clue, and looking at your last post, neither does yours!
You mentioned about 6m ago that you’d had a change in liothyronine brand? Could that have something to do with your recent problems?
I strongly suspect other hormones are at play here. Though working it out as you say is a minefield.
And no, my surgery doesn’t have a clue. Or to be fair, the didn’t used to - I haven’t talked thyroid with them since I went on T3 and I aim to keep it that way, hence my panic over them wanting bloods last week!
It’s not a brand thing, I’ve been on the same brand for months now so that’s one thing i can be certain of! Small mercies 😂
Vertigo is a sign of hyperthyroidism, I used to go on escalators and look down to see if I was on too much. You could try taking your liothyronine an hour or two later to see if you still get the same effect.
I had bad vertigo before I switched to T3. I remember walking along the beach (as I do every morning) and as the waves came past my feet, right to left generally, I’d completely lose my balance! That was too little though, so many conflicting symptoms.
It is possible it’s from too much T3 I guess, it’s just odd as I haven’t changed anything. You’re right, I’ll take my T3 a bit late tomo morning and see.
Thing is, if it doesn’t happen you can never be certain that theory was right! The delights of thyroid disease - I long for someone to make diabetes-like testing for us so we can pinpoint these things
If it happens when you change the timing you can switch back and forth a couple of times. If you get consistent results you can be certain it is the T3. From what you say I think it is unlikely due to your liothyronine but it's logical to double check.
I think vertigo can be a sign of under or over medication. I had 2 years of constant balance issues, but touch wood they have largely disappeared since I added T3 to Levo. We are more at risk of vestibular issues when hypo.
Are you still splitting your dose? I wonder if a single dose might be better
I'm also wondering if the dizziness after the dose is the body telling you it needs more hormone.
I'm on high dose T3-only and found a split dose didn't work for me....I need the "push" the larger single dose provides to get enough T3 into the cells.
Weirdly, I cannot take anything less than 20mcg - it’s like I’ve taken nothing, has no effect whatsoever. However, I tried to slowly increase my single dose from 30 to 60mcg a while back, and got to 40 before I felt like I was going to explode myself!
So I had to give up. The two doses works fine for me though I have noted I need to be more careful with my timings… an hour or two later in the evening and I feel overmedicated for a while in the morning after that dose! However I don’t honk this is the case here as I’ve been taking it religiously and the symptoms are different.
Hmm, food for thought though, I’ll give more thought to that, thanks ☺️
I was looking through your profile DippyDame and our stories are fairly similar - well, in terms of how our thyroids got here!
Although mine was over a much shorter timeframe, my problems started after a period of acute stress too - my father died very unexpectedly and other things happened that year too that sent me spiralling. All of a sudden I became very unwell, and at every turn was told my thyroid was fine.
Even when they were discussing a pacemaker and potential heart attacks - I was 40!
Anyway, after fighting to get T3 I eventually worked out that T3 only was what worked for me, and I’ve slowly increased my dose on that as you have. I’m only around 60mcg a day, but anything less just doesn’t touch it. And the thyroid resistance certainly rings true here too.
Anyway, I just thought I’d drop you a wee line… there’s not many of us around when it comes to T3 only coincidences!
My feeling is you may not be taking enough or you take it too late? Not sure it would be from too much it goes away later. Unless it's some peak. I think it's related to your thyroid meds. Would you try to take 2.5 mcg t3 more to see if it helps?
I’ve done this today. To be fair, my dose has fluctuated a little bit at times by this amount over maybe the last year and I think it maybe female hormones at work!
I’ll try this for a few days and see how I get on, so far no more dizziness
I think you might be roughly onto something! As above, my hormones have definitely been fluctuating a bit over the last year or so, and for me too high progesterone (and therefore low oestrogen) does sometimes cause me to feel dizzy. But in a far smaller way than yesterday, this was like I had been playing that spinning on a broom handle game!
So maybe not oestrogen directly but definitely a contributing factor I think
Yes, never had vertigo in my life till I tried reducing the oestrogen in my HRT to see if I really needed 4 pumps. Bingo, full head swimming like I was drunk, couldn't move without feeling sick and complete gyroscope feeling. Had it once or twice since until I worked out ot was oestrogen. Now the wordt it gets is occasionally get a bit dizzy on turning over in bed.
It has to do with the crystals in your ears. When they are 'out of position', they can cause severe vertigo. You can have that checked with your GP, there is a very simple way of determining it.
I’m with you on the heat issue. I stayed in all day yesterday as it was very hot here. Luckily my little grandson didn’t mind. We played lots of games that didn’t involve running about. It was still warm indoors but about 5 deg cooler than outside.
As soon as it’s under 23 deg I put socks on because my feet get cold 😂🤷♀️
I actually dislike summer (for many reasons) because I need to wear socks and trainers/boots most of the time. If my feet get cold I’ve had it. I have a pair of warm bootie type slippers which are regularly worn on a summer evening if I’ve been brave and had flip flops on all day.
I’m usually ok in the heat - which is just as well as I work in a plant nursery in greenhouses which hit 30c any time the sun comes out, summer or winter!
Well this evening I’m wondering! I woke up with a bit of a sore lower back but then I do sometimes get a bit of an ache around one sacroilliac joint (I’ve had the opposite hip replaced) and so I thought nothin of it. However, now my whole lower back is stiff and sore and I’m definitely feeling below par.
So you could be right, maybe it’s a bit of a bug and nothing thyroid related at all.
As someone else said further up, we thyroidies do tend to jump to conclusions!
I’ve made a teeny dose increase so let’s see what happens over the next few days.
Well we can and do jump to conclusions but it’s not that surprising when so little real help (or knowledge) is available elsewhere. Hope you get it sorted.
I’ve just started on T3 and I began to feel very slightly dizzy after a few days, however I also noticed that I was experiencing a build up of catarrh too, so I’m thinking that I may be beginning to suffer from hay fever as my eyes have started to itch as well, so I have been taking antihistamines which have helped. I take my T3 in the morning and later in the afternoon as prescribed by my endocrinologist and don’t feel anything after my later dose it’s usually the earlier one that I feel light headed, which makes me think it might not be the T3. Are your bouts making you feel sick and does the room spin? If so it could be labrythitis, I suffered badly with that pre menopause, it’s just a thought.
Murphysmum Just had a look at the list of symptoms on your profile. Have you had an early morning cortisol blood test done recently. Whilst dizziness can be caused by all sorts of things, low cortisol would also explain a number of the other symptoms that you list.
If you haven't had one done and think it might be useful, try to book it for between 8am and 9am, as the circadian nature of cortisol means that it peaks early and that is when tests should be done.
I have had cortisol tests in the past (right at the start of my journey, or issues anyway) and it was normal then, so I’d assume that if I’m more appropriately medicated then it shouldn’t really be cortisol? I’m happy to be corrected on this though as it’s been a while since I looked into it.
Normally now I am pretty much symptom free, the only lingering thing I suffer from is muscular fatigue. This comes and goes in severity and I wonder how much of it has to do with other hormones - I know my testosterone has been low for a few years but no one except me cares!
I will look into it again though, thanks for your help
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