Levothyroxine and burning skin feeling

[choyal]

My doctor recently diagnosed me as hypothyroid.  He put me on 25 mcg of Levothyroxin (levothyroxine) which I take first thing in the morning each day, at least 1 hour before eating breakfast.  After being on Levothyroxin (levothyroxine) for about 9 days, I started to experience a feeling of having a mild sunburn inside my skin.  The outside of my skin looks normal. The burning feeling hits me on various parts of my body like my legs, arms and upper back.  The burning feeling comes and goes in various location on my body, meaning that for 15 or 20 minutes my left forearm feels burny, then it stops burning there and part of my right thigh may feel like it is burning.  Next my right calf and right forearm may feel burny.  This tends to go on all day with the burning feeling migrating around the affected parts of my body.  There are times during the day when I do not feel any burning sensations anywhere on my body.  The burning feeling is tolerable, however I have these questions:  1.  Is this likely to be a side effect  of Levothyroxin (levothyroxine).  2.  If it is a likely side effect, does it make sense to try to take a smaller does or switch to a different brand of the medication.  3.  If I stick with Leothyroxin is it likely that this buring feeling will subside on its own over time.  My recent TSH number was 6.06 and my vitamin D was 22.9.  That is all that is wrong in my blood work.  My general health is excellent and I have no other medical conditions.

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

Your intiial TSH was mildly elevated - there is no definite indication for treatment until TSH is >10.  Would consider talking to your doctor about stopping the medication to see if burning sensation resolve -- if so, then consider observation of TSH w/o meds, if TSH increases, then switch to a different levothyroxine product such as Levoxyl.  Would also take additional vitamin D for the low vitamin D level -- ask your doctor, but we typically recommend 1000-2000 IU D-3 / day.