Share the T4 & T3 doses that you feel best at
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For those who take thyroid, what are the T4, T3 ratios that you feel your best at and gives you the best blood work. Explain, if possible, also how you progressed to that dose.
And also mention if you have certain conversion issues. -
Having tried over-the-counter thyroid glandulars, standardized desiccated thyroid and synthetic thyroid, I feel my best and have the best blood work with 2 grains of standardized NDT (Armour) so a 4:1 ratio of 76 mcg and 18 mcg. I started at 1/4 grain and increased my dose every 2 weeks by 1/4 grain until I was at my optimal dose—TSH ≤ 0.4, thyroid antibodies and rT3 at the lower end of the range, morning temp ≥ 97.8° and daytime temp ≥ 98.6° with warm extremities, pulse rate ≥ 80 and of course, a resolution of symptoms like hypoglycemia, amenorrhea, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, depression, anxiety, hair loss, dry skin, brittle nails, brittle teeth etc.
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@Jennifer Thenks for sharing. Do you take that amount in a single dose or split into how many doses?
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You’re welcome, @GreekDemiGod. I split it into 4 doses taken with 3 meals and a snack.
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So that would amount to a single dose of about 19 mcg T4 and 4.5 mcg T3, taken 4 times daily, right?
Also, do you think that rT3 is a relevant number to track? Have you noticed you feel better at a lower rT3? I'm asking because I read that people being given large doses of T4 are told that an increased rt3 is not that important. -
@Jennifer Did you say in one of your posts that you needed to reach the right amount of thyroid before Progest-E or another progesterone worked for you? If so, what were the results of taking Progest-E/ natural progesterone when you did not have enough thyroid on board/ what symptoms did it create?
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@Jennifer where do you get your thyroid?
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I followed Danny Roddy's suggestions in his post. I took T3 during the day (cynomel) and after a few weeks added T3/T4 before bed (cynoplus). I quickly felt gittery. Now I only take just a 1/4 of cynomel 3 X a day. And a tiny piece of the cynoplus at night.
The one big change for me is that I don't have any more heart palpitations. I've had those since I was a teenager but worse since menopause. -
@GreekDemiGod said in Share the T4 & T3 doses that you feel best at:
So that would amount to a single dose of about 19 mcg T4 and 4.5 mcg T3, taken 4 times daily, right?
Also, do you think that rT3 is a relevant number to track? Have you noticed you feel better at a lower rT3? I'm asking because I read that people being given large doses of T4 are told that an increased rt3 is not that important.Correct. I can’t say with certainty if I feel better at a lower rT3 because the one time it came back at the higher end of the range, all my other thyroid numbers were out of range. The only thyroid number that has come back higher in isolation is thyroperoxidase, and I had symptoms then—that’s when I was having adrenaline attacks (convulsions and syncope) that put me in the hospital.
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@RPadmirateur said in Share the T4 & T3 doses that you feel best at:
@Jennifer Did you say in one of your posts that you needed to reach the right amount of thyroid before Progest-E or another progesterone worked for you? If so, what were the results of taking Progest-E/ natural progesterone when you did not have enough thyroid on board/ what symptoms did it create?
Ray wrote in his Progesterone Summaries article that “using thyroid will usually reduce the amount of progesterone needed. Occasionally, a woman won't feel any effect even from 100 mg. of progesterone; I think this indicates that they need to use thyroid and diet, to normalize their estrogen, prolactin, and cortisol.” but progesterone supplementation never worked out well for me regardless of my thyroid dose. I’ve never had high estrogen, prolactin and cortisol levels but by the time I was in my early 30s, I had only had a handful of periods since I first started menstruating at 14 so my practitioner at the time started me on a natural progesterone cream and not long after I switched to Progest-E and began bleeding heavily for upwards of 10 days every two weeks and experienced heightened arousal—just the sight of a man and I was overstimulated—and this continues to be my experience with it, even while at a proper thyroid dose. It was great for relieving the pain from my spine collapsing and the anxiety and night terrors I had after my mum died—she suffocated to death in my arms from a pulmonary embolism—but I have my diet so dialed in that I have a good estrogen/progesterone ratio and pretty ideal periods (28 day cycle, no symptoms whatsoever, not even mood changes, and minimal bleeding for a couple of days) without supplementing it.
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@BeamsOfEnergy said in Share the T4 & T3 doses that you feel best at:
@Jennifer where do you get your thyroid?
Armour is only available here via prescription so I get it through my doctor, but I’ve also had good results with IdeaLabs’ TyroMax.