Armour, Too much thyroid, Doctor's mistake

[Danny80]

Hello, I'm a 30-year-old male. Several months ago, I saw my primary care doctor, because I was feeling cloudy, fatigued and depressed. She ran a basic blood test, which showed that all of my levels were normal, except my TSH was slightly high. On the 040-4.50 scale, my thyroid was 4.97. My T3 and T4 levels were normal. She didn't think it was anything to worry at the time. I did see an endocrinologist twice. He wasn't convinced that my symptoms were a result of my thyroid, but had me try synthroid for a few weeks, which made me feel ill, so he had me quit.  Getting to the point, I lost my insurance at the beginning of this year, so I couldn't see a specialist. I started see my mother's primary care doctor,  an internist, because he charged an affordable rate for people without insurance. I read a lot of good things about Armour thyroid, so I had him put me on it. Here's were the mistake comes in to play. He told me that he was going to put me on the lowest dose of Armour, which he erroneously believed was one grain (60mg). I was on 60 mg for 4 months. In two months my TSH dropped to 1.2, and I think it continued to climb down because I started developing hyperthyroid symptoms--anxiety, sweating, premature ejaculation. My mistake is that I did not research Armour sufficiently before taking it. A couple weeks ago I was reading about Armour and learned that there is actually a 1/4 grain and a 1/2 grain. Not knowing if I should just quit cold turkey, I called my doctor's office and had them call in a prescription for 1/2 grain (30 mg), which I started taking a few days ago.

So now I have a few questions: could being on 60 mg's have impaired my thyroid even more or cause any permanent changes to my thyroid? Will my thyroid recover from too much thyroid, and will my TSH re-adjust to a lower dose? I want to stop taking Armour and see how I feel just on an antidepressant. Am I doing the right thing by weaning off, or should I just quit completely? I was going to move down to 15 mg after a month.

I'm deeply concerned about this issue. Any advice or helpful information will be greatly appreciated.

[laura1967]

Danny- are you splitting your dosage into 2 times per day....morning and early afternoon? This will help keep hyper symptoms at bay and extend out the t3 med.
Yes you need to have your tsh supressed and your free's at proper levels to keep antibodies at bay.Your body cannot heal if you are kept hypo.  At the beginnings of hashimoto's it is common to have those hyper swings with the hypo swings. It will even out eventually. I have nodules too.
When someone is at optimum levels on Armour they usually look like this: TSH is in hyper range, Free T4 should be mid normal range, and Free T3 level should be high normal range.  
A lot of symptoms are alike with hypo and hyper so it can be confusing. Especially with the anxiety you can get from being hypo.
Let me know when you get your results.

[Danny80]

Hi Laura,
Thank you for responding to my post. You were very comforting. I've been on Armour 30 mg for several days now, and so far, I haven't had any negative symptoms. Exercise has helped out a lot too. I still feel a little cloudy and fatigued in the morning and afternoon, but I can handle it.  Also, my insomnia isn't as bad. Unfortunately, I do not know what my current levels are. I haven't been having my levels tested every 4 weeks. It's been pretty inconsistent. It's been more like every 8 weeks or longer. I guess my doctor isn't aware of this or the new normal range. The last blood test I had was in early May. I haven't seen those results yet, but I will post them once I get a copy. Being that I recently changed my dose, I suppose I'm due for another blood test.

There's more to my thyroid problem than I explained before. The endo that I saw a couple times when I had insurance, had my blood tested for thyroid antibodies, and I tested positive. Also, I have two small nodules on my thyroid. Does this mean that my TSH should be between .50-1.0? I'm concerned about suppressing my TSH that much, because I developed hyperthyroid symptoms when my TSH was at 1.2 (possibly lower). At any rate, I guess I need my blood tested asap. Is there anything else I should know? Thanks again for your support. I really appreciate it.

Take care

[laura1967]

Hi Danny and welcome. I wouldn't get to concerned or scared, as soon as you lower meds your levels will adjust accordingly. What concerns me most is the fact that you do not have any idea what your levels are at this time. How long were you on armour? Whenever you are starting or increasing levels with armour, you should have your bloodwork done every 4 weeks until you are stabilized. ALL 3 tests need to be done each time: TSH, Free T4 and Free T3. The new normal range for TSH is now a .30-3.0....maybe your lab and doctor are not aware of this, which unfortunately happens quite often. Now.....normal values of t3 and t4 doesn't always mean normal either. Optimum level for t4 would be mid normal range and t3 optimum level is mid to mid high normal range.
IF you have Hashimoto's Autoimmune thyroid disease, then this puts your labs at different levels as well....for example the tsh should be supressed to between a .50-1.0 according to my endo. Otherwise the body will suffer hypo symptoms and not be able to heal.
The most important thing to remember and do is to get copies of all your labs so you can post the results with ranges here for everyone to see and comment on.
Hang in there!  :)