Discussions that mention synthroid

My most recent numbers are this:

TSH: 4.8 (range .5-5.5) mildy elevated
Free T4: 1.78 (range: .75-1.54) elevated
Free T3: 225 (range: 230-420) too low

I won't go into my background very much, but found my way here a few months ago because of bad heart palpitations. It was eventually determined that they were made worse by the T3 in Armour I was taking at the time (I took that for about a year) and then the T3 in my .5 cytomel dose after being switched to synthroid & cytomel.

Now I've been on just 112 synthoid for a few months and the Dr. feels strongly I need T3 since that's not increasing at all and my T4 is getting too high. He said it doesn;t make sense to up the synthroid since I'm getting enough T4, it's T3 I need. And he said too much T4 can also cause palpitations.

He's going to try a compound thyroid, which will be both T4 and T3 in a time release formula. He really thinks this will be good but I'm a little freaked out considering how bad my palpitations were all summer long. I still get them, but I think at this point it's more stress driven.

Anyway, is anyone else on such a combination, and if so how is it working out for you? And is the T3 in such a formula milder than just taking cytomel?

Just an update. Had my 6 week checkup after being on compound synthroid/cytomel. Dr. called upset about the numbers and said this isn't working. My TSH is 95 now and the Free T 3's are still too low and Free T 4's also are still too low although those are slightly better.

I suspect that the compounding might not work for me... maybe I'm not absorbing it properly. I'm really leaning towards going back to Armour. It was the best I ever felt when I was on it, and while I got heart palpitations real bad at the end the Dr. thinks I was simply getting too much (I was taking 150 mcg when the heart palps kicked in). He thinks maybe we should start at 60 mcg. or even 75 mcg and see how that goes. I'm nervous because I don;t wnat heart palps again but man, right now I'm so tired it's hard to function.

Bonus of the cytomel in this compound formula though... about 2 weeks after starting to take it my hair stopped falling out. My hair has been falling out steadily since I went on straight synthroid this past summer. I think the T3 in cytomel helped even if my TSH freaked out.

I tried compounded thyroid meds once, although it only had T4 in it, no T3. I was having trouble tolerating the synthetic T4 meds (Levothroid and Levoxyl) and my doctor thought it might be due to an allergic reaction to the binders and fillers in the pills. It turned out the real problem was adrenal fatigue, not allergies.

I currently take 100 mcgs of Levoxyl and 90 mg of Armour. I tried Levoxyl and Cytomel, but I just didn't feel right on that. I'm like you in that Armour makes me feel best. It seems like your current plan of working your way back up on the Armour is good. Your numbers with the Synthroid only were really skewed. If it turns out that the ratio of T3 to T4 in Armour is too high for you, you can try reducing the Armour some and adding some T4 to get a better balance.

I used to get lots of skipped heartbeats. In my case it seems the cause was a combination of hormonal imbalance and magnesium deficiency. Taking magnesium really helped me a lot with the palpitations. You might try taking some magnesium to see if it helps you.

Katherine