L-thyroxine has been the standard of treatment for some time in cases of low thyroid. But, doctors, pharmacists and patients are only now beginning to understand that a one-size-fits-all treatment strategy may not be the best.

For example, some people who take l-thyroxine do well. They get on the right dose and it does the trick.

But others don't. And that could be for a couple of reasons:

1. Your dose is too low. Or...
2. L-thyroxine is not the right product for you

Lets look at each problem individually.

Too Low of a Dose

The most common practice for treating hypothyroidism is to measure a TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone). If you'd like more specifics I wrote an article about the TSH Blood Test.

But, if your TSH came back high, which meant your body is trying to put out more thyroid hormone and can't for some reason. So, your doctor prescribed l-thyroxine which is synthetic thyroid hormone. Then, your doctor has likely been monitoring your TSH blood levels. When they get back into 'normal' range your doctor says you have the right dose.

One big problem with this methodology is that there are instances of patients whose TSH goes back into normal range who still have symptoms of low thyroid - like you are explaining. In fact, many clinicians now believe that there are millions of Americans who actually have hypothyroid and normal TSH. What this means is that you can't always base a successful treatment on a lab value. You have to base it on a patient's response.

I would discuss increasing your l-thyroxine dose with your doctor to see it you don't start feeling a little better. Or, look at a second option:

l-thyroxine vs. Armour Thyroid

Personally, I'm a lot bigger fan of Armour Thyroid than I am l-thyroxine.

You see, when your body secretes thyroid hormones naturally in your body it puts out a mixture of hormones. But primarily it is T4 and T3. L-thyroxine is only the T4 component. Armour Thyroid has a mixture of both T4 and T3 and more closely mimics what the body naturally does.

Also, a little bit of your natural T4 is converted to T3 in the body. Some people have trouble converting T4 to T3. Also, T3 tends to be the more 'active' form of thyroid so adding some of that in can do wonders for a person who is only taking T4 (l-thyroxine).

One warning: if you mention taking Armour Thyroid to your doctor he or she may be very hesitant to prescribe it for you. I find this commonly and it's not warranted. Most of the doctors who are hesitant are afraid patients will get side effects from the T3 component like fast heart rates and even arrhythmia's.

I also wrote an article about Cytomel which is strictly the T3 component. If you look at the side effect profile of Cytomel you'll see that it is extremely safe. It is arguably even safer than l-thyroxine.

Like I said above, l-thyroxine and Synthroid along with TSH values are the standard of care in hypothyroidism. Unfortunately, in some cases the standard of care isn't doing the job and their needs to be changes. It looks like you might fall in that group.