synthroid to armour...poll

[lorakin]

Hi All,
  
I was on synthroid 137mcgs not feeling well for years. Even though I was optimized by a tsh standpoint, I contiued with terrible fatigue, hairloss, acne,heavy menstral periods and constantly feeling cold. My endo tried to blame all this for other reasons and said there was nothing left to do.  I got my gp to switch me to armour and immediately felt great only to slide bacwards over the next couple of months.  My gp replaced my dose of synthroid with 90mg or 1 1/2 grains of armour.  This is supposed to be the equivalent according to the conversion chart.  My last tsh came back at 2.5 and my free t's were at the bottom of the range.  While on synthroid my tsh was always under 1. I have never felt this hypo in my life...I feel as though I am drugged or drunk. MY gp just increased to 2 grains, so we will see....My question is, If you switched from synthroid to armour, where was your synthroid dose when you stopped it and at what dose did you get optimized on armour???  I hope this makes sense, seems the conversion chart is way off...

Lorakin

[scarlet37]

Sorry I can't answer your question. You may have some luck on the website about.com/thyroid

Good luck- God Bless

[neuromancer74]

was first placed on dose of 90mg armour, and increased by myself every 4 weeks or so, based on symptoms, by about 15 mg each time.  

felt the need to increase when the following started occuring, again: chest pain, pain in clavicle bones, FATIGUED!, headache, constipation, neck/face swelling, eye hood drooping, MAJOR IRRITABILITY/MOOD SWINGS/CRYING AND RAGE FITS.  

always felt better after.  

felt optimal by 165 mg, but doc told me i was overmedicated - tsh was supressed to about .001.

in due time, started having difficulty breathing, constantly gasping for air.  my hands started shaking.  i lost muscle mass and became a jello'y mess, unable to even climb a flight of stairs.  probably as a result of losing pretty much all muscle mass, gained weight.  lost ALL sexual appetite or response.

new doc got me to switch to synthroid 112mg, and cytomel 5mc twice daily.  

first 2 weeks after switch i was fantastic, now i'm a mess.

i wish you luck with the armour.  i don't think all the mumble they give you is true (about how it's unreliable, etc) - but i DO believe it is true that the T3 AND T4 might not always be the same from pill to pill.  i say this as my T4, both total and free, always came in range, and my T3 was always out of range high.  now, had i been somehow converting/creating too much T3 on my own, the same would be happening now on the standardized synthroid/cytomel i'm taking - and that's not the case.