Experience of Levothyroxine?

[Emmasian94]

What is your experience of Levothyroxine?
I've read so much conflicting information on this medication. It's almost scared me into not wanting to take it.

Your TSH will get higher the lower your dose. So if you feel better with a higher TSH then lowering the dose might be better for you.

Most hypothyroid people on levo feel better when their TSH is around 1 though.

The symptoms around ovulation could be to do with lady hormones rather than your thyroid. It can be difficult to separate out the symptoms which can be similar.

I take a mix of levothyroxine and liothyronine (T3, another thyroid hormone) and felt much better than just on T4. But also saw another improvement on starting on HRT as some symptoms were obviously being caused by perimenopause.

I would go and post on the Thyroid U.K. forum on Health Unlocked. You'll get excellent advice there on your results and your options. Levothyroxine isn't the only option if that isn't resolving symptoms for you (although many people do very well on just levo).

Going back to your OP though. The answer is NOT to stop taking thyroid meds. If you are underactive you NEED thyroid hormone to replace what your body is missing. If you don't take it you will very slowly become increasingly unwell and ultimately die (after possibly losing your mind!). It's not something to mess around with.

Have been taking it for around 10 years. No obvious problems or side effects.

Slight update and sorry yes I know this is a zombie thread!

So I had my yearly blood test for thyroid last month. I also had to see my GP for something else. After for virtually the past ooh 10 years where most doctors either try to blind you with medical info re thyroxine and TSH levels or their eyes glaze over and they wonder why you’re interested (yes really) I spoke to a new female GP on Monday who explained things far better and actually wanted to look at possibly decreasing my medication and also my meds I take for an overactive bladder. One male GP at least explained why I got this was due to levothyroxine speeding up my metabolism hence making me wanting to wee more and suddenly.

Anyway, I think this new GP if I ask nicely might refer me to a private endocrinologist on NHS if they can do this. Or help otherwise. So please do speak up. I got fed up of speaking to disinterested male GPs about my thyroid issues and then the peri/menopause too and I even was unsure about private endocrinologists which I can afford. So I gave up asking as I got fed up. Also in my case I had to have a years worth of blood tests to get the right dose of levothyroxine sorted, every month and even though I’m not needle phobic I certainly was put off having blood tests, even got a bit nervous of them. I had a bad experience with blood tests when I was 17 where I fainted during or after one too.

Plus I hated taking time off work to go but my new employers are far more understanding.