Erfa or Armour?

[christine502]

I had been on thyroxine for ten years when I was prescribed desiccated thyroid hormone in October 2011. At the pharmacy, I asked for both Erfa and Armour to be able to compare the two. I had read so much about the reformulated Armour and all the patients having problems with it, so I was almost afraid to try it...but my doctor wants me to take it, she is on Armour herself and claims it's the best thyroid drug on the market. But after all the stories I've read, I expected Erfa to work wonders for me and Armour to be useless.

But it was the other way around.

In fact, Erfa seems to be acting much faster/absorbed much faster than Armour. Could that be the case? I can take Armour once daily (even such a high dose as the 5 grains I am currently taking) and feel fine, but with Erfa, I need to multi-dose and I find that very inconvenient. If I take 5 grains of Erfa in the morning, I start feeling hyper some time around noon and I stay hyper until the evening. Following my doctor's instructions, I swallow the Armour pills and wait about half an hour before eating.

Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone know the reasons for this? I have to admit that I am surprised that Armour is working so well for me, after all the negative things I have read about it. And I am equally surprised that Erfa is not so great for me as it seems to be for many others.

[70longhorn]

Yes, Armour is probably more  widely available here in USA but its cost has soared!    At GoodRX.com, 30 Tablets costs $30, and I need three .25 tabs per day.  I find the cost unconscionable, as Armour is the oldest thryroid (porcine) med around.  I feel TERRIBLE on Synthetic thyroid meds (flu like symptoms, muscle aches) and I resent that the Armour has soared, soared, soared in price!

[LazyMoose]

Id like to see ERFA pricing now that its 2018 to compare. Ive used NP thyrtoid for about 4 years now, it was cheap then started to go up too, not nearly as much as the new owners price Armour though. To much greed in America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brucergoldberg]

i have that hyper crappiness you speak of.  Hits me like a ton of bricks.  day in and day out.  its like ground hog day...

[Barb135]

The reason your link didn't work, is because the forum referred to, is a competing site and MedHelp, understandably, doesn't allow links.

[christine502]

Do you chew or swallow your pills? I know many are unhappy about not being able to do Armour sublingually anymore and therefore prefer Erfa, but I don't like to take pills that way so that's not a problem for me. I would like to find the best method to take Armour, though; some say the pills should be swallowed, others say they need to be chewed first and then swallowed.

[gimel]

After their prior painful experience with changing Armour, I doubt that Forest will risk any further changes.  

I can't really tell any difference in its effect on me.  I'm happy with it.

[christine502]

There is also a thread on this forum, entitled Anyone found Armour was reformulated AGAIN in 2011? (don't think it will work to copy and paste link but hope you can find it anyway)

[christine502]

It seems impossible to copy and paste the link here.

The site I mentioned is called Health Boards (in one word but I write it like this to make it seem less like a name that could be deleted) and the number of the post is 739276.

Hopes this helps.