Martindale's purified levothyroxine....

[Tony63]

Does anyone use this or have any experience with it? Or any other brands of purified levothyroxine.

[helvella Administrator]

Probably the form of levothyroxine with the fewest, most innocuous additional ingredients is a USA product called Tirosint.

It costs around 75 US dollars for 28 capsules (all dosages seem to have the same price). They are a gel form.

The inactive ingredients in TIROSINT are gelatin, glycerin and water.

Rod

[Tony63 in reply to helvella]

Thanks Rod, you are a mine of information!

[RedApple Administrator]

Tony, Martindales is not a 'brand' of purified levothyroxine as such.

Martindales are a 'compounding pharmacy'. They make up medicines for individual patients on an 'as ordered' basis.

In the case of purified levothyroxine, they will simply take some levothyroxine, add one other ingredient to bulk it out and put it into capsules.

[Tony63 in reply to RedApple]

D'oh! My internetting skills leave a lot to be desired! Thanks Red!

[shaws Administrator]

This a member who is also on purified levothyroxine.

thyroiduk.healthunlocked.co...

[Tony63 in reply to shaws]

Thank you Shaws, I've been talking to Suze! I didn't think to ask her!

[JoanofArc]

Hello Tony,

Yes, I have experience with taking Martindale's 'Purified' Thyroxine. I obtained the prescription from a private doctor who knew very little about it, but was prepared to let me try it nonetheless. If I remember correctly I had to contact Martindale's direct to try and ascertain what the doctor needed to write on the prescription. That in itself was an exercise in trying to hold onto one's sanity. I found the customer service 'advisors' at Martindale's very difficult. It is obvious they do not like dealing with the general public.

This term 'purified' is a misnomer really. The pharmacist I spoke to at Martindale's didn't really understand what I was asking for. I then tried explaining that I was after a capsule of thyroxine with NO added fillers. He then told me that was impossible, and that they had to add a filler to bind the ingredients together inside the capsule. He said there was literally hundreds of fillers listed on their product page.and when I asked which one was usually added to thyroxine to be termed 'purified' he replied "No idea". In the end it was me that had to decide, and I chose calcium phosphate because I think Suze had mentioned that was what was added to hers.

Now, I don't know if other people have had the same problems, but honestly, the whole situation of trying to obtain the Martindales thyroxine brought me to my knees. Trying to determine what filler was suitable for me with no medical guidance was very frustrating. Martindale's would not even send me the list. How can someone with no medical knowledge be able to work out whether avicel cellulose is more suitable than calcium carbonate for instance? But as the Martindale's guy said "It's all trial and error". Well, yes it is. And I'm paying...

So then the fun of trying to cost the prescription. First quote from Boots....£387. Erm, no thanks. Next stop the Co op...£97.89. Eh? Oh, ok that's fine... until you find out that they were given the WRONG quote from Martindales. Ahh, them again. Ever so helpful. Request correct price again from Co op only to be interrogated by the Head Pharmacist as to why I can't just take ordinary thyroxine like everyone else. Cue complaint from myself to Co op Head office and several emails later I finally get a reasonable price and then......Guess what? It didn't agree with me.

The reason I've posted this lengthy reply is because I'm concerned that other desperate thyroid sufferers will follow suit, and find out to their dismay that this 'purified' stuff is just going to generate the same debilitating side effects as with bog standard levothyroxine. Racing heart, palpitations, weakness, loose bowels, hair fall etc with all the underlying hypothyroid symptoms unresolved. The change of filler made no difference because I now know T4 in any form does not do the job for me. Whether it does the job for you may depend on the size of your bank balance.

[Tiredofthis77 in reply to JoanofArc]

Hi Joan,

Do you mind me asking what the final cost of this was and how much you got (one month or three months)

Thanks in advance

Tired

[meromano]

Hi Tony

I took Martindale's thyroxine for a while a couple of years ago. As I thought I had a sensitivity to lactose, my endo and GP had agreed to prescribe a lactose/sugar-free formulation. To start with, the pharmacy sourced various thyroxines from different suppliers. I noticed the shelf-life was very short - they once gave me thyroxine with a one-month expiry date and I think they gave me something like a 3 months supply, stupid or what? Then I noticed the Martindale expiry date was about 2 years so I asked my GP to specifically prescribe Martindale's which he kindly agreed to. Unfortunately over the next few months, I started getting quite unwell which could have been caused by a number of problems ie serious stress at work, maybe the tetanus vaccine I had to have or something else. In any case, I wasn't feeling well at all and my TSH was going up even though my dose was increased. Eventually I had some sort of a break-down by which time I asked to get back on to the generic thyroxine. My TSH went back down gradually and I got a little better. I came to the conclusion that the Martindale's thyroxine wasn't working and I wish I had known how to get it tested for efficacy but I didn't know how to go about it so I'll always have a doubt as to whether it might have been some sort of placebo. I hope it wasn't and I was assured that it wouldn't be as medications are supposed to be tested to make sure they're OK. It was such a hassle just to get the pharmacy to get the product and it was very expensive; I didn't have to pay for it but I feel it was a waste of NHS money. I'm still on generic thyroxine, and my endo has agreed to try me on a T4/T3 combination. I'm still not brilliant but so much better than I was a year ago! I'm not saying don't go for Martindale's thyroxine but if you do, keep an eye on your symptoms and your test results to make sure it's doing the job. Hope all goes well.

[anjh-blue in reply to meromano]

My daughter has been on Martindale for 18 months with latest filler being 'microcrystalline cellulose' and for the last few months her reflux is back and her eyes are red and she started jerking last year. She is on the Paleo AI. So that is covered, I had been checking everything and thought about the filler in her Martindale capsules. Now I need to check with my local pharmist to check the past 18 months have her fillers changed as I stupidly didn't keep a check.

[helvella Administrator in reply to anjh-blue]

You might find this abstract of some interest:

The effect of excipients on the stability of levothyroxine sodium pentahydrate tablets.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/129...

[anjh-blue in reply to helvella]

That was 2003 standards in EU/UK are surly regulated now.

[Tshperfect]

Has anyone had tirosint their n the uk? And how was the experience?

[helvella Administrator in reply to Tshperfect]

You have responded on a six-year old thread.

If you want an answer, you would probably do much better by writing a brand new post.