Dosing Synthroid
jadedone
Posts: 2,446 Member
I was chatting with one of my friends who is hypothyroid. (I had no idea until I told her I was). Anyway. She is from Europe, and she was telling me a bit about how she was dosed. Anyway it was pretty interesting, as her doctor used body weight to set her dose!
At least initially. Her amount is higher than the "body weight" dosage, but it really got me thinking. She weighs about 125 and is at 150 mcg. (Her doctor had started her off around 100 initially and she increased to that. It was something like 80% of your body weiht = the number of mcg you need.) She was SHOCKED when I told her I was only at 125 as I am way larger than she is -- she said, I bet you are totally off since I have a higher dose than you do! My first dose was only 50mcg, and has been inching up from there over the past couple of years, with some big variations in test results...
Isn't that completely odd? Has anyone else heard about dosing by body weight? I'd love o find out what you think....
At least initially. Her amount is higher than the "body weight" dosage, but it really got me thinking. She weighs about 125 and is at 150 mcg. (Her doctor had started her off around 100 initially and she increased to that. It was something like 80% of your body weiht = the number of mcg you need.) She was SHOCKED when I told her I was only at 125 as I am way larger than she is -- she said, I bet you are totally off since I have a higher dose than you do! My first dose was only 50mcg, and has been inching up from there over the past couple of years, with some big variations in test results...
Isn't that completely odd? Has anyone else heard about dosing by body weight? I'd love o find out what you think....
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Interesting - I've never heard of dosing by your weight. I was on Synthroid for 15 years -- my levels jumped so much that I had bottles of every dosage of Synthroid in existence in my bathroom drawer. At one point, my TSH was 43 and I could barely move -- my dose then was 250 mcg. Not sure how dosing by weight would work -- I prefer to think that in a perfect world they would dose us by our symptoms!!
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I've never heard of this, I think it sounds odd. I am an RN and have always been told it should be based on your thyroid levels and symptoms. I do wish some doctors would go more by symptoms and less by just a "normal" TSH level.0
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Jadedone,
That's interesting. You know, awhile back (we won't say how far back) Doctors used to give you certain medications based on your weight. Can't say which ones or why I just remember something about using body weight for certain things.:huh:
I know Vet's use body weight when dosing liquids and other medications for dogs. There are so many whatever's on a syringe or 1 or 1 and 1/2 pills etc, depending on the dogs weight. Anyway just a little blurb about what your question brought to mind.:yawn:
Ginny0
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