Pharmacy cannot get backordered synthroid drug

Today I went to pick up my synthroid medication (for thyroid) and was told they don't have it. The lady in the pharmacy said they've been trying to get it from the manufacturer for two weeks but it's on backorder.

They called another pharmacy across the street and found that they had some so they transferred my prescription there and I picked it up at the other location.

When I got home I did a quick search online and found some prescription websites that also show Synthroid on backorder.

I've been on this medication since I was a child (over 30 years) and I have never experienced this situation so it has me concerned.

I'm aware that due to environmental toxins, that more people are developing thyroid conditions and needing medication to control it. I'm wondering if the demand is starting to exceed the supply.

Has anyone else experienced problems with getting this (or any other) medications?

HI
Iam on it,need to get a re fill on monday.will see what happens.
I hate this damn pill,I have only been on it for a year,every morning gotta take befor I can eat anything for an hour.SUX.
I swear this pill crashed my system sent me into a serve veritgo attack for 9 weeks strait.Any effects on you?

reply to post by teraform


I've never paid any attention to the dosing rules. Sometimes I take it with meals, sometimes not. I'm only affected if I forget to take it and the symptoms are swollen, sensitive glands in my throat and if I skip more than one day, my energy level drops significantly. But I haven't made that mistake in years. So basically... no, I don't really have any problems with it.

Synthroid has a very long half life, so if you are feeling a difference from one day to the next it's something else besides your one medication. I'd suggest you check with your MD and tell them how it's affecting you. I'm on synthroid myself and am an RN.

at my first testing my thyroid was at 102 it should be at a 5.
My energy levels run low all the time I sleep 9 and half hours a night,cold all the time I live in florida too.have anaxity also,who knew that the thyroid could do all that.

reply to post by annestacey


I'm a pharmacist and I wouldn't worry about it too much. Lots of medications go on back order peridically, and they are usually available again within a few weeks. I'm sure it will be pretty soon.

I also take thyroid meds, so, I know how you feel. Here are a few alternatives if Synthroid goes back-ordered indefinitely, although I can't imagine Synthroid being backordered indefinitely

1. You can get the generic levothyroxine. It wouldn't hurt to switch for a month or so until the brand synthroid comes off back-order.

But if you do have to switch to generic synthroid (levothyroxine) indefinitely, you may want to consider having your thyroid labs drawn after 4 weeks, to make sure you don't become hypo or hyperthyroid. Although most of the generic levothyroxine products are now 100% bioavailable (identical) to synthroid, not all of them are.

If this makes you feel any better, I work in a hospital, and we use generic levothyroxine for all our patients, so I wasn't even aware of the Synthroid backorder.


2. Are all strengths of Synthroid backordered, or just a few? If all of them aren't backordered, another option you have is to use a half of a pill of a higher strength or two pills of a lower strength of Synthroid. Sometimes, only one strength of a drug is back-ordered, but not all of them. This happens quite a bit for us in the hospital. Ask your local pharmacist about this one.


3. There are also natural thyroid products available, such as Armour thyroid, Westthroid, etc... (This is natural dried thyroid from an animal.)

I myself take Armour thyriod, which is a desicated thyroid I was on Armour from the age of 1 and 1/2 to 22. I switched from Synthroid to Armour thyroid when I was 22 (because they told us in pharmacy school Synthroid was better than Armour, and I was trying to go 100% vegetarian) but I developed mood swings when I switched over, which eventually developed into full swing bipolar disorder 10 years later.

I didn't realize that the brain can go into a form of bipolar disorder if your t3 levels are too low or if you are still clinically hypothyroid while on thyroid medicine until I started doing my own research.....then I switched back to Armour thyroid. My moods were much, much, much better on Armour thyroid than they were on Synthroid!!

Because of my experience with Synthroid and generic levothyroxine, I now tell all my patients who are experiencing depression or anxiety or mood swings while on Synthroid to talk to their doctors about trying Armour or adding t3 to their Synthroid regimen. Some patients need t3 added to their t4, depending on whether they convert t4 to t3 effectively enough. if not, not enough t3 can reach the brain, and mood swings and anxiety can develop.

I don't know if you suffer from depression or anxiety or mood swings, but if you do, you could always talk to your doctor about switching to a natural thyroid product like Armour thyroid or Westhroid, etc... (Check the internet.....there are lots of pages and devoted to this phenomenon. Also, a good book on this subject is "everything you need to know about hypothyroidism" by M. Shoman)

Well, I hope all that helped. But don't worry...backorders don't usually last more than a few weeks, so your Synthroid should be available again soon.

By the way, the new TSH recommendations are to now keep it within 0.3-3.0. Some doctors aren't aware of this, and they are still going by the old recommendations, which is to keep the TSH around 5-7, but this can cause a patient to go into subclinical hypothyroidism, and develop depression, anxiety, etc...

[edit on 7-2-2009 by nikiano]

Originally posted by teraform
at my first testing my thyroid was at 102 it should be at a 5.
My energy levels run low all the time I sleep 9 and half hours a night,cold all the time I live in florida too.have anaxity also,who knew that the thyroid could do all that.

See my above post about your anxiety while still on thyroid meds.

The new recommendations are to keep your TSH level between 0.3 and 3...the old levels were to keep them around 5-7. You may be clinically hypothyroid, which could be contributing to your anxiety. This happens when the brain doesn't get enough t3.

Also, see my post about asking your doctor to try you on a natural thyroid product like Armour or Westthroid. These products have both t3 and t4, and many people find that their mood swings and anxiety is much better on natural thyroid than synthetic thyroid. (I know mine was!!)

Again, a great book about that is by Mary Shoman. Or, you can just google it. I think about.com has some really good articles about hypothyroidism for the general public.

Thank you
your info was most helpfull!!!I will check out that book.I had no idea about thyroid and what it does,the thyroid does alot more than a lot people may think.
thanks again

That's really good information... thank you. I think I will talk to my doctor about trying the Armour.

I had anxiety and depression for many years and was on antidepressant meds for 7 years but I was able to get off that medication by changing my diet. I found out that the toxins in processed food causes depression so I was able to eliminate depression by eliminating processed foods and going organic. I also changed all of my personal care products to chemical-free brands because I discovered that they also contain neurotoxins.

Anytime I consume some kind of processed food (at my parents house or in a restaurant), I find that the depression returns slightly but it goes away if I just get back on my clean diet.

I find that it's difficult to stay 100% clean of the toxins so I currently take St John's Wort daily as a safety precaution. But I think it would be a good idea to try and switch my thyroid meds as well.

Thanks again for all the great information!

I wanted to also add that I cannot take levothyroxine.

About a year ago, a pharmacy gave me levo instead of synthroid and it really caused problems for me. My energy level dropped, I started sleeping a lot and my skin became flushed.

My doctor had to call them and tell them not to replace my meds and I had to go through all of the blood tests all over again to get me back to normal.

Since then I've been very persistent with pharmacies to make sure they are giving me synthroid and not levothyroxine.

Another thing I would like to add is that when I was on antidepressants, my thyroid medicine had to be adjusted. Over the 7-year period, I changed antidepressants now and then (or changed dosage) and my thyroid always had to be readjusted along with it. When I went off the antidepressants, the thyroid needed to be readjusted again.

So just keep that in mind if anyone is taking antidepressant meds and thyroid.

Originally posted by annestacey
I wanted to also add that I cannot take levothyroxine.

About a year ago, a pharmacy gave me levo instead of synthroid and it really caused problems for me. My energy level dropped, I started sleeping a lot and my skin became flushed.

My doctor had to call them and tell them not to replace my meds and I had to go through all of the blood tests all over again to get me back to normal.

Since then I've been very persistent with pharmacies to make sure they are giving me synthroid and not levothyroxine.

Hmmmmmm...... same thing happened to me....... and worse...... much worse. I almost died due to liver failure, heart failure, you name it.... Turns out that what I got and what most likely you received was a "bad batch" of Levo. In other words..... we were taking a worthless drug due to "manufacturing errors". My eyesight is worse and so is my hearing permanently..... towards the end of that Levo disaster I could not even write down a phone number correctly. Fun...

oh my gosh that is terrible! How long were you on it? I was only on it for less than one month because I started feeling bad pretty quickly and got the situation fixed.

What's really interesting about levo for me is that the pharmacists say it's the same as synthroid (only generic) but my doctors have said they are not the same.

I hate the fact that I have a thyroid disorder in the first place. I blame it on the government. They've poisoned us so much that our bodies are just not functioning properly anymore.

Originally posted by annestacey
CUT...
I hate the fact that I have a thyroid disorder in the first place. I blame it on the government. They've poisoned us so much that our bodies are just not functioning properly anymore.

I was on this defective batch of Levo for approx. one year. Very insidious physical and mental effects having your thyroid out of whack. Anyone reading this thread that is having unending undiagnosed illness should have a blood test for their thyroid..... ASAP.

My wife is a Pharmacist.

Well..... my case is ultra ATS. The govt. is definitely to blame for my thyroid disease. On a "plausible deniability" note..... Thyroid disease meds are one of the top five most prescribed meds in a pharmacy. Oh... one more thought... An Israeli woman who fought for Palestinian rights within her country said that her doctor told her that her thyroid illness was caused by the day-to-day stress she endured due to Israeli govt. harassment of her and her family. But again..... who could prove such a claim...... "plausible deniability".

C'est la vie........