Advice on increasing dose of levo please.

My hypo husband has been increasing his starter dose of 50mcg by 25mcg every 2 weeks. So far he's noticed nothing - no improvement and no adverse reaction. He wonders if it would be OK to speed up the increase to 25mcg every week instead of 2 weeks? He's currently on 100mcg daily.

Thanks.

[PinkNinja]

Actually it would normally be a good idea to get a blood test at this point to see how things are going. Now, I'm not saying to use these results to work out dosing, just to give an idea of how things are going. It isn't a good idea to increase too quickly because it can take 4-6 weeks for each increase to have its full effect. A blood test will give an idea of whether another increase is needed, but you do need to go by symptoms too.

If he started on 50mcg and increase every 2 weeks, then the full effects of the initial 50mcg dose will only just be happening around now. The effects of the 75mcg and 100mcg probably haven't made any difference yet.

Levo contains T4 which has a long half-life so it is important not to increase too quickly because if you end up taking too much it can take a while for levels to come back down again.

There are other things to look at too, like iron, ferritin, vitamin B12, folate and vitamin D tests. It's important that these levels are optimal so that the body can use the thyroid hormone properly. They also have their own sets of symptoms which are very similar to hypothyroidism so deficiencies can confuse the issue.

Personally, I would stick to increases of 2 weeks and possibly longer as he gets to higher doses.

Even once optimal dose is reached it can take a while for the body to fully recover. It is a long process and shouldn't be rushed.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Carolyn x

[Hidden in reply to PinkNinja]

That's very helpful Carolyn, thank you. His B12, vit D, ferritin, etc. are well up now, having been very low, and he's due another thyroid test in the next few weeks, so I'll encourage him not to try and speed things up until then.

Sue

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