Thyroid meds: Anyone take both levothyroxin and liothyronine?

@lghccgirl1960 welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect and the Diabetes Endoccrine System Group. I just saw your first post /discussion pertaining to Thyroid Meds. Do you have hypothyroidism, if you don’t mind me asking? I assume so from the question about levothyroxine. I don’t know liothyronine is. Could you explain more about it?

Yes I do. T3, or cytomel, is the only thing that makes me feel normal! I need it on top of the levothyroxine or t4.

I was taking both meds up until a few months ago. I then went from hypothyroidism to subclinical hyperthyroidism. I was taken off my liothyronine to see if that helps. Dr. doesn't yet know why I went from hypothyroidism to hyper. I did feel best when I was on both meds. I am afraid I am not much help to you, since my situation has changed.

I take both. When i started using lical drs versus teaching school drs, they did not understand cytomel. They changed the dosages extremely in wrong direction. Noone could help. I thought i had dementia fir several yrs. I had many other issues as well.
I went back to teaching hospital and the original dr who prescribed cytomel was shocked. I was a mess. He said i was very lucky not to have had a stroke. As soon as he adjusted the meds i felt like my old self.
After yrs on wrong dosages, i have several health issues. Mostly autoimmune.
The lesson i learned. Keep advocating for yourself even when noone believes you or knows how to help. It took yrs for me to find out what was wrong.
Good luck and be sure your dr kniw how to use cytomel.
My first experience of takibg it was like having lights turned on or fog lifted from my brain. That was great while it lasted.

Not yet, but I have an appointment with an endocrinologist the end of the month and I’m really wanting him to add t3 prescription on top of my t4 prescription. I can’t maintain adequate t3 and I get bad side effects if my t4 levels get to high. I will try to remember to update after my appointment. Getting issues from to low of t3 now.

Yes I do as well! Since I had most of my thyroid removed, I found that my t3 levels were too low, and a small dose of cytomel helped immensely. I now take 10 micrograms a day.

They added 5mg to my synthroid

hello Catherine,
what are you free t3 and free t4 ?
I don't know my free t3, but my free t4 is 1.3 (0.8 -1.7 is Kaiser's range)

what are you taking for T4 ? I haven't started any meds, I am still at subclinical level (although my TPOs over 1300). Endo I spoke to couple days ago saying ' I am heading into directions where T4s and T3s will be affected soon

have you looked into armour thyroid?

Sounds like your medical testing is a different method than ours. Normal range for our system for t4 is 7.9 to 14.4 (mine was 12.1). T3 range is 3.8 to 6.0 (mine was 2.8). These numbers change with dosage change, but if I take a high enough dose to get my t3 into even the lowest acceptable range my t4 levels go way up past the upper range limit and I get bad side effects such as severe hot flashes, high anxiety, unable to go to sleep and stay asleep, muscle weakness and fatigue.

If I get to low in t3, as the numbers above show, I get severe dry peeling skin.

The best I’ve felt was was the times I tested between a t4 level of 12.4 to 14 and a t3 level 3.0 to 4.1 (we haven’t been able to get the t3 level any higher) but we can’t get it to stabilize in this range 😢