Bio-identical hormones and thyroid treatments

[ktr19]

Can anyone answer what is entailed in a bio-identical hormone treatment and how it may apply to treating hypothyroidism?

To recap my situation I’m  a 44 year old male who has been treating for an underactive thyroid for several months… my PCP has me on a miniscule dose of levothyroxine (.25mcg)  which has my TSH lower but my FT4 is still low in its range! And even though I still have many symptoms, my PCP is on a wait and see for the next six months. Rather than wait that long, I have booked an appointment in a few weeks with a thyroid savvy doctor who has gotten very good reviews in my area. But in seeing those reviews, I see where he not only considers the use of T3 meds and dessicated (which is good) but also see the use of  bio-identical hormones.  

Is the bio-identical hormone treatment in addition to the dessicated treatments or part of them? Also will it apply to a man?  The reason I ask, when I search for it on the internet the most I see is dealing with menopausal women? And although my hypothyroid issues lately has me feeling like I am in “man-o-pause” I don’t think it really applies to me! ;)

Any thoughts are appreciated!  

[ktr19]

Here is one of the links I looked at (admittedly quickly) when searching the term:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/What-are-bioidentical-hormones.htm

And saw where it states that “But custom compounding is necessary only when a clinician wants to prescribe hormones in combinations, doses, or preparations”

Most of the article does talk about hormonal replacement for women (menopausal)…

Also glanced at this one as well:

http://www.mdcustomrx.com/

About mid way down it mentions that “compounding solutions with custom blends of T4 and T3 hormones to meet individual patient needs’

So I was assuming they can be custom made depending on the individuals #’s

[goolarra]

Do you have a link?

[ktr19]

Well was thinking that is what it was for…and perhaps the review I saw was from a female patient that was treating for both.

But I do recall seeing on line where they did mention that the Bio-identical meds were compounded individually.  So perhaps they were referring to the synthetic manipulation you mention?    

Interesting concept either way...

[goolarra]

"Bio-identical" is a term most often replied to reproductive hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal women.

However, it can be applied to thyroid hormone replacement as well.  You'll hear people talking about desiccated as "bio-iedntical", but that's really a misnomer.  Our thyroids produce a ratio of T4 to T3 of approximately 20:1.  Porcine thyroid is at between 4 and 5:1.  So, there's much more T3 in desiccated than our thyroids produce.  For those who don't convert well, the extra T3 can be a real bonus.

So, "bio-identical" when it comes to thyroid hormones involves some manipulation of synthetic meds with or without a desiccated component to replace in roughly a 20:1 ratio.

I don't know what you were reading.  Many women have reproductive hormone issues as well as thyroid issues, so he might have been referring to a therapy that involves both.