Did You Know?

You may already know that treatment for hypothyroidism can help bring your thyroxine level back into balance. But that is only part of the story. Here are some other important facts about hypothyroidism. Did you know that:

Usually, thyroid medicine must be taken for life

Hypothyroidism does not go away on its own. To help keep your thyroxine level balanced, you will most likely need to take thyroid medicine every day for life.

Treatment replaces the thyroxine your body makes naturally

Levothyroxine, the active ingredient in your thyroid medicine, works very much like the thyroxine your body used to make. Rather than adding something new and different to your body, your medicine simply adds back the thyroxine you need to help keep your body in balance.

Even a tiny change in your treatment can disrupt
the precise balance of thyroxine in your body

Taking the same thyroid medicine the same way every day (what doctors call consistent treatment) helps keep a precise amount of thyroxine in your blood day after day. If you change the way you take your medicine (for example, by taking it with food or skipping doses), or switch to certain thyroid medicines that the FDA has determined to be therapeutically interchangeable with Synthroid, your body may not get that same precise amount of levothyroxine it needs to help keep your thyroid in balance. That can bring back old hypothyroid symptoms or bring on new ones. If your doctor has started treatment for you even if you do not have hypothyroid symptoms, consistent treatment is especially important. The only way to be sure your thyroxine level is in balance is to have follow-up TSH tests every 6 to 12 months or as directed by your doctor.

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