I have an underactive thyroid?
my doctor has put me on 75 levothyroxine I keep getting loud fast heart beat and have sleepless nights and my chest keeps getting tight in the centre and the left upper chest. my doctor tells me that this will go away once the tablets kick in. but I have been on these things for a month now. has any one else sufferd this and if so did it go away
User Comments
- sounds like the medicine should be at a lower dose. I'd talk to the physician and have him check your blood levels.; it's part of the follow up for patientes with hypothyroidism.
- I never had it b4 but give it time and you should be fine after a few months..good luck.
- Hi, I am 100 levothyroxine, I get these symptoms only occasionally, go back to your GP. Good luck
- You give neither your age nor past history. The symptoms you give are of concern, tight chestedness should NEVER be brushed aside. Some of your symptoms are suggestive of over-active or over-treated thyroid disease. If 75 mcgs of levothyroxine has been your start dose, it is higher than most doctors would use initially. In a youngish patient most GPs would start with no more that 50 mcgs, in an older one 25 mcgs.
Your chest tightness might indicate that when your metabolism is pushed by the levothyroxine it is putting your heart under strain and uncovering an underlying heart problem. I would go back to your doctor and suggest he thinks again.
- I think the doctor put you on to high of a dose to start with.
When I was on too high of a dose, I became short tempered, and would have trouble sleeping and wake up with heart palpitations.
I think you also get these symptoms is your dose is raised up too quickly and your body needs to adjust. For older patient or those with heart disease they start at 25 or 50 mcg because the side effects may be too much for them to handle.
You should ask for a blood test from your doctor, it usually take 6 weeks for the full effect of the medication to kick in.
- Go back to the gp to check your levels. I am hypothyroid after being hyper and have to say that I got palpitations with both and still do even though my levels are ok. I take 175mcgs thyroxine, as said earlier 75 is not a lot. This disease is not well understood and there are a lot of symptoms that they say you should not have when levels are ok , but you do. If the problem is not discovered until levels are wrong how can you know what is normal for that person.
- I have just started the same tablets a couple of weeks ago so I dont know. I have same symptoms as you so I hope it does work for both of us x
- 75 mg of levothyroxine is quite a low dose! I'm on 250 mg!! But your symptoms sound like they are overactive rather than underactive!! Get your doctor to check your bloods again - you should be under a hospital specialist (an endocrinologist) not your GP, and they should check your bloods every 4 - 6 weeks until they are settled!
- I have had an underactive thyroid since I was 11, I am now 34. Are you sure its not overactive?