My GP has just tried to convince me that levothyroxine is the same drug as liothyronine
Levothyroxine and/Liothyronine side affects?
For hypothyroidism, why is it always treated with levothyroxine (T4) instead of liothyronine (T3)?
T3 is the active form of the hormone but there are quite a few reasons why patients with hypothyroidism are treated with T4 instead of T3 and they all stem from the fact that T4 is converted into T3 in the liver and kidneys through deiodination.
This means that the replacement of T4 alone provides a long lasting store of thyroid hormone that is gradually converted to T3 (T4 has a longer half life than T3 - T4 7 days and T3 1 day) resulting in stable plasma levels of both T3 and T4.
Being gradually replaced means that depending on how much the dose is when you get blood work done in order to measure TSH titers, you will already have both T3 and T4 readily available for conversion which simulates normal thyroid hormone production. So normal doesn't necessarily mean optimal but it really depends on the dose and how good patients are at following instructions about their treatment.
More on reddit.comTaking Levothyroxine and Liothyronine at the same time?
I honestly don’t know whether to laugh, cry or bang my head against the wall
I’ve been on a combo of levothyroxine and liothyronine for over 10 years and requested a refill for the liothyronine. They prescribed me more levothyroxine.
When I flagged this and asked them to change it I was told ‘they’re the same thing just different name’
Ermmm no they’re not? I pulled out my phone and was pulling up all the websites explaining the difference to show them.
How do we stand a chance when these are the ‘professionals’ who are meant to help us?!
Edit to add: they followed up on the above to state that they are general medicine not specialists…but then went on to tell me repeatedly how I was going to have a stroke due to the liothyronine/t3 🤣 and that’s why they didn’t want me to have it. So that was fun
edit: massive thank you to you all for sharing my pain! No one else in my life would have understood what I was on about and would have led to me explaining thyroids and medication before they understood, but knew my hashi gang here would get it and you did not let me down