Underactive thyroid - anyone had to start using triiiodothyronin (t3) rather than thyroxine to help symptoms?

Question

Do you feel better on it? worse? Recommendations?

Answer 1

Only tried t3 (Cytomel) temporarily before taking radioactive iodine after thyroid cancer. I felt fine on it, no side effects, and felt slightly better on T3 than T4. When I say better, I felt less fatigued and it did not affect my sleep. I took 50 mcg cytomel instead of 225 mcg of synthroid for 4 weeks.

I am under the impression since T3 effects your body more rapidly than T4, doctors would shy away from prescribing it for an extended period at a full dose.

A better alternative would be a mixture of T4/T3 if it made you feel better.

Answer 2

It is rare for a doctor to treat with just T3. I've only met one person online who was put on Cytomel and are doing fine. The majority of people are on T4. However, I've found that most people will feel better if they are on a T4/T3 combo. Some are on T4 with Cytomel and others are on T4/T3 by means of Armour or Thyrolar. I've done the T4 and Cytomel and it was better than T4 alone. The thing about Cytomel is it is more powerful than the T3 in Armour, so if you add it to T4 it has to be a very small amount. I know of many people who had hyper symptoms with the added Cytomel, but were fine with Armour. Though I felt better on T4 with Cytomel, I wanted even better, so about 3 years ago I switched doctors and got on Armour. It was the best move I've ever made. Almost every hypo symptom is gone. The only symptoms I have now are cold feet at night and ridged fingernails with no moons. Two symptoms that are tolerable. When I was on T4 alone, I had most of the textbook hypothyroid symptoms. I highly recommend Armour to anyone who is still having symptoms on T4 treatment. There's one thing about ARmour though, the dosage cannot be adjusted by the TSH. It needs to be adjusted by the free t4 and free t3 blood tests.

I will post some related links below

Answer 3

It is unusual to start T3 rather than T4. The only data sheet indications for this are :Severe thyroid deficiency and myxoedema coma. Neither of which I have come across in 30 + years!. I have seen it tried in patients who are said to be ' sensitive ' to levothyroxine (T4). In none of these cases did the patient tolerate T3 either!