[Doggygirl]

Hi all. This is some GREAT info sharing!!

beatle I'm not sure if your question was directly answered. Synthroid is synthetic, and Armour is natural (from pigs). That is the big difference. What makes it work differently is that Armour contains all the different forms of Thyroid hormone - T3 and T4 being the biggies, but also T1, T2 and there is another one I can't remember the name of right now. One of the big problems I've read about with Synthroid is that it mainly addresses T4, but if your body is deficient at converting T4 into T3 (the actual active thing) then you are being incorrectly treated. There is a synthetic form of T3 (starts with a "C" - somebody help me out here..) that is sometimes prescribed with Synthroid for a better outcome if T4 -> T3 conversion is an issue.

That stop the thyroid madness link I posted up thread might answer a lot more of those questions for you about Synthetics v. Naturals. (Armour is not the only natural one...but it seems to be the best known.)

The posters who mention "how you feel" v. blood testing to determine correct doseages echos what my own doctor says. She never relies only on TSH to begin with, but she has patients whose TSH levels are WAY low relative to the "normal" scale, but that's where they feel good so that's the doseage they stay on.

FMS - you raise an excellent point about all of the hormone systems and their inter-relationship. I'm glad that all the stuff was tested at once - I've read that too about adrenal fatigue. There is also a tight connection (apparently!) between Thyroid and Cortisol. If one is off the other might be off. Mine are both off. My doc is treating the Thyroid problem first, then we will see what the Cortisol levels do. (she says it would be a crap shoot to try treating both at once) My adrenals were fine, so I don't know what she would have done, in what order if there had been a problem there.

I'm feeling really good on the very small dose of Thyroid (she says it's VERY important to titrate up slowly) and also the levels of progesterone and estrogen mix she put me on. (also natural - no synthetics). I feel like my moods are stable and sleep isn't 100% yet, but has been improving at least a little bit. (since my Thyroid dose is so low, I may still have really high Cortisol at night affecting that...)

I will be talking to the doc this Thursday for a progress check. Will report more then!

DG