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Has anyone been able to order Armour? or is everyone having the same problems of the prescription being out of stock? Any info will be greatly appreciate it.
Hi, again! I answered your question back in my thread "Any referrals for doc's that prescribe Armour Thyroid" in the Lehigh Valley, PA section. I've copied & pasted my reply below (even though I realize you'll get it in duplicate) basically on the behalf of anyone else that comes across this post in the "HEALTH" section. Here it is:
Hi! Don't despair...you can still get your Armour Thyroid or it's equivalent. I found a doctor to prescribe it & I mail my prescription off to "Women's Int'l Pharmacy", here's the link to their site: Compounding pharmacy - Bioidentical hormones – BHRT – Women’s* International Pharmacy
You have to pay them directly & then send the paperwork in for reimbursement through your insurance company. OR - the other alternative is finding one of those little "hometown" pharmacies, not the big "chain store" pharmacies and ask if they will compound your Armour for you. The chain store pharmacies do not do any compounding of special prescriptions, and by special I mean the Armour Thyroid. If they don't have it in stock then they won't "make it" or "compound it" for you. The little "hometown" pharmacies typically will do that. I chose to use Women's International Pharmacy because I had used them in the past for some bio-identical hormones & they were referred from the doctor that wrote the script. You can call them and speak with them and print out the necessary forms from their website. They also state there is a shortage on their site but it's more of the supply and demand I believe at this point. I have had no trouble at all getting my Armour from them. The FDA stopped production based on one of the filler's that were being used in the Armour. This apparently backed things up & since they've restarted to make it with the new & approved filler I suspect they just can't make it quick enough. I have heard that people have noticed the new Armour doesn't quiet work as well, all I know is my new doc lowered my dose so I'm just noticing reduced energy levels & sleeping longer. I'll have to discuss that with him......so I'm not sure if it's the new Armour or the lower dosage or maybe even both. I hate when they mess with a good thing! Hope this helps!
the compound pharmacy in my area does not accept insurance. and at $41 a month... i'll pass.
So far, i've been lucky and have been able to find Thyroid. I've been on it since August, and every month i seem to bounce from one pharmacy to another to find my dosage. Since i'm still trying to be 'stabilized', my dosage has always been different.
I was lucky enough to find a Walmart that had 90mg, and 3 months worth... so i'm set for a while until i have to 'do the dance' again in finding one that has thyroid.
Has anyone been able to order Armour? or is everyone having the same problems of the prescription being out of stock? Any info will be greatly appreciate it.
go to the Armour website you will get all the info you need
there no more longer on backorder
lucky you being on ARMOUR why is my Doc refuse to but me on armour?
***This is just a warning for those of you who want to try Armour. My experience might not be your experience. If you have any of the same symptoms I did, please get to the doctor right away. I am not advising people not to take Armour ( I am not a doctor), I just want you to know the side affects that are possible. I didn't realize the symptoms I was having were from Armour and I didn't call my doctor right away because I thought it would get better, but it just got worse. I don't want anyone to go through what I did, and if you are willing to take the risk at least know the possible symptoms so you can get yourself medical help if needed.
I really wanted to try Armour Thyroid for my Hashimoto's and it was literally the worse week of my life. I was put on a low dose, switched from Cytomel and Synthroid combo. I immediately reacted to it. I had bad palpitations, anxiety, shakiness and my blood pressure went up. I felt a heaviness on my chest and at one point the palpitations were so bad I was on my tile floor on my hands and knees crying and praying that it would go away. Praying that I wasn't having a heart attack. I went to Urgent Care and had an EKG and sugar testing ( I am not diabetic) and check for various things. They gave me a pill that would counter the affects of the reaction I had. My EKG came back normal too...so no heart issues.
My doctor who prescribed the medication advised me to keep taking it and we would take smaller doses at different times of the day. I still felt really bad with milder heart palpitations, high anxiety and stress, shakiness and my blood pressure continued to be high. I decided to get an appointment with an endocrinologist who had a cancellation. He told me to stop taking Armour Thyroid immediately and switched me back to Synthroid. Yes, I know Synthroid is not an immediate fix like Armour, but I would take the slow progression of Synthroid any day over Armour that jolted my system into shock.
The endocrinologist explained that the reason most endo's don't prescribe Armour is because many people cannot tolerate it well, and like my situation but worse many of those patients end up in the ER. He did say that some people can tolerate it, but it is a quick jolt to the system compared to Synthroid that is a slower but steady pace. For some people like myself that jolt is too much on our systems. Just to be clear, I am a very active and healthy Hashimoto's patient, I exercise for at least 30 mins. a day with many days at 60 mins. I lift weights and I eat healthy. I've had zero heart problems. My new doctor told me that it will take a few days for the Armour to clear my system and that I might still feel shaky, anxiety, palpitations etc. until it clears. It was a scary, scary situation to feel like you are going to have a heart attack simply by taking a medication. It was a terrifying experience, I never felt my heart pound so hard before, not even during exercise. It was racing so hard that I couldn't catch my breath almost, it was an experience I never ever want to go through again. I don't wish that on anyone!
I know a lot of you are tired of not being able to lose weight with Synthroid. I agree. It is a slow process. Losing weight has not come easy to me at all...I've struggled. Armour might make you lose weight quicker and I understand everyone's need to get the extra weight off, but for me it is not worth the side affects. I finally have started to lose weight, I've lost 9 pounds in 3 weeks by doing Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet and doing Walk Away The Pounds 6 days a week for 30-60 minutes a day plus some light weight lifting. I decided that I needed to really get myself in gear. I usually eat one nice meal a day and then have a cookie for breakfast and dinner. I eat whatever I want once a day, but what I have found is now with the Cookies by Dr. Siegal that I am less hungry for a big meal. So that combination of Diet Cookies and a lot of walking is what has helped me lose weight. I haven't lost all my weight that I've gained since being diagnosed with Hashimoto's, but I feel like 9 pounds is a good start. I still would like to go for another 20 pounds, but I will take the little increments, a little by little. F.Y.I. Dr. Siegal's Cookies are no Mrs. Field's cookies...they taste terrible, but they fill me up for quite a while.
I wish all of you much lucky with this very tricky thyroid situation. I know it is not easy to be fatigued and gain weight rapidly. I've been there, I am still kind of there, but forcing myself off the couch despite hating exercise has made a huge difference for me. Good Luck!
If you haven't already made her acquaintance, people interested in thyroid-related issues might want to check out the work of author Mary Shomon. She is the author of eight very common-sense health-related books including Living Well with Hypothyroidism, Living Well with Graves Disease and Hyperthyroidism, and The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss, a book that has helped me a lot.
Contrary to the experiences the poster had above (palpitations, etc.), I had no such bad experiences. My experiences with Armour Thyroid were fantastic. Since then I've been switched to Levothyroxine because the doctor wanted to focus only on the output of the thyroid. I'm still experiencing no problems. Please, folks, keep in mind that none of us on these forums are doctors.
i'm a male who is 41. i've been on 175 micrograms or whatever of levothyroxine. i was diagnosed back in 2004/2005? I was told i had hashimotos thyroiditis. which is similar in some respects to regular hypothyroidism, but quite different in many. i was frustrated by my last doctor who left the clinic 2years ago, as he was hesitant to put me on anything else. i actually ran out......because i coudn't afford another refill until my next unemployment check comes. I guess the brain fog is slow to leave.....and depression is still a big issue to deal with......weight gain? a little , but more ups and downs with manic depressive moments especially in winter it seems.
I had heard from reading Mary Shoman's site and other related health forums that Armour Thyroid had undergone some re-formulations, esp since I had last taken them - pre-1970. When I took them, I never had any really bad symptoms. I did better on them than the Synthroid that was later pushed by many doctors. I took Synthroid up until the last coupla years. I convinced my doctors that I wanted to get off from synthetic and go more natural. I think I was on Armour for a very short while, but there were some serious supply issues. I did more research and then managed to convince my Dr to switch to NatureThroid by RLC Labs. I've been doing pretty well on that, even managed to lose a few pounds.
I remember hating to take the Synthroid so much, because of how it made me feel. I had even skipped doses and when the Dr saw me, stated that I was showing signs of myxedema.
Enclosed link: Medscape: Medscape Access
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Armour
Armour-my personal experience
