Should I Increase My Daily Dose Of Medicine For Thyroid Problems?

Posted on Sat, 23 Apr 2011

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 Answered on

Last reviewed on

Question : My thyroid TSH is 4.0 I feel lousy but my doctor will not increase my 100mg daily dose please advise,I had radioactive iodene 8 yrs ago. last time TSH was 3.5 they did not increase my dosage for 18months and I developed fibromyalgia which got better after increase.I am aged 56 5ft 4inches and weigh 9stone my normal weight is 8stone 8lbs,my nails havegone brittle and my skin is dry and flaky.

Answered by Dr. Dr.Raju.A.T (41 minutes later)

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for your query,

The symptoms you have now are typical of hypothyroidism ( low levels of T3 and T4 dtermined by high Tsh ).For the above level of Tsh you mentioned the optimal dosage of the synthetic hormone should be 100Mg only.

Since fluctuations in the Tsh levels can be expected in the disease process without any appearent worsening od the illness ,I would advice you to wait for some more months say 3 months and get the Tsh levels rechecked if the levels remain same or increased then the dosage of the levothyroxin could be considered to be incresed.

Hope I have answered your query. If you have any follow up queries I will be available to answer them.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar