Thyroid Medicine T3 Cytomel Available in HCMC?

You could contact the pharmacy at Family Medical Practice. The clinic is popular with foreigners, and they can speak English. Some say their prices are higher than Vietnamese pharmacies, but I think your concern is whether the drug is available anywhere.

website

Thank you for your help. Yes, I am much more concerned with the finding the medication than I am concerned about the price.

Thank you for your help.

gobot wrote:

You could contact the pharmacy at Family Medical Practice. The clinic is popular with foreigners, and they can speak English. Some say their prices are higher than Vietnamese pharmacies, but I think your concern is whether the drug is available anywhere.

website

Are you saying that the clinic has its own pharmacy? I haven't checked the clinic here in Đà Nẵng yet, but that would be good news.

Ever since I left Hà Nội, I haven't been able to locate Naproxen/Aleve

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

gobot wrote:

You could contact the pharmacy at Family Medical Practice. The clinic is popular with foreigners, and they can speak English. Some say their prices are higher than Vietnamese pharmacies, but I think your concern is whether the drug is available anywhere.

website

Are you saying that the clinic has its own pharmacy? I haven't checked the clinic here in Đà Nẵng yet, but that would be good news.

Ever since I left Hà Nội, I haven't been able to locate Naproxen/Aleve

Most clinics have their own pharmacies.

A lot of foreign hospitals have their own pharmacies. I just forgot the name, but there is also somehow a chain of pharmacies, which sell  mainly foreign stuff.. .. was a reply to one of the topics here, ages ago.
It will be hard to find that here, but maybe the poster will repost details

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

gobot wrote:

You could contact the pharmacy at Family Medical Practice. The clinic is popular with foreigners, and they can speak English. Some say their prices are higher than Vietnamese pharmacies, but I think your concern is whether the drug is available anywhere.

website

Are you saying that the clinic has its own pharmacy? I haven't checked the clinic here in Đà Nẵng yet, but that would be good news.

Ever since I left Hà Nội, I haven't been able to locate Naproxen/Aleve

Just seen, you are in Danag.., yes, a lot, if not even all foreign hospitals as well as a number of local private hospitals do have their own pharmacies. Quite likely in Danag is well.
If stopping in one, you might get it straigt away or at  least a tipp-off, where to get or a medical alternative.
As to my knowledge, there is nothing, what a pharmcy could not get and in ofreign owned places even more sure

What I found on the Family Medical Practice website regarding pharmacies:

Many medicines that are restricted in Western countries are available over the counter in Vietnam without prescription. While this can be an advantage if you know exactly what you need, it can also lead to self-diagnosis and self-medication which can backfire with extremely serious consequences. There is also a risk of unknowingly buying counterfeit or expired medicines.

All travellers are recommended to shop for medicines only at respected pharmacies such as Pharmacity. Well-reputed local chains include My Chau, Minh Chau, and Long Chau. Be aware that brands that are common overseas may not be sold here, although functionally and chemically identical products may be available. Local versions of any particular drug can vary in composition, with some medicines only available in reduced strengths.

Family Medical Practice runs its own in-house pharmacies for medicines prescribed by our doctors.

Family Medical Practice  have ben mentioned as pretty decent in pricing and good in service also by a few friends. Definitely an option. As hospital is well, as they bring also the medical knowledge in case of not available

I just received an email reply from the Family Practice Hospital medical coordinator. They checked with the pharmacy. The pharmacy said they do NOT carry T3 or T4.

They don't have Synthroid / Levothyroxine (T4) thyroid medicine.

They don't have Cytomel / Liothyronine Sodium (T3) thyroid medicine.

They don't have either one. I can at least get T4 in Thailand, but no T3.

I looks like my only options are:
Singapore
Australia
USA

Any other suggestions to try in HCMC?

I have seen T3 in Hanoi, but it was not in pharmacy.. they sold it to gym people.

Wald0 wrote:

I have seen T3 in Hanoi, but it was not in pharmacy.. they sold it to gym people.

It probably isn't the right dosage I need or even clean.

In Thailand they sell a "vitamin pill" through the anti-aging clinic that has a small amount of T3 and some T4. It is not a high enough dosage.

Taking T3 for aging or muscle mass is a small dosage. It is not the same dosage as someone needs for Hashimoto's thyroid disease.

What I have been told is that T3 is not sold in Thailand or Malaysia to discourage outsiders/foreigners from staying in the country. You must leave if you want your medication. This is a reach around to get long-term expats to leave the country. You simply deny them the medications they need to survive.

No need to deny a visa if the person is forced to leave the country for life-saving medications. It is a sneaky way to get rid of expats.

It is looking like my only options are:
USA
Australia
Singapore

Going2Cali wrote:

Many medicines that are restricted in Western countries are available over the counter in Vietnam without prescription.  ... blah blah ... which can backfire with extremely serious consequences ...

Another of the freedoms we enjoy in SE Asia. Less nanny state, more personal responsibility.

Going2Cali wrote:

They don't have Synthroid / Levothyroxine (T4) thyroid medicine.
They don't have Cytomel / Liothyronine Sodium (T3) thyroid medicine.

Oh, never heard of "T4", but I have been taking 100ug synthroid and generics for TSH suppression for 30 years.
In Thailand, you can get Euthyrox ("levothyroxine sodium" I am reading off my box) at any Boots, Watsons, or mall pharmacies. 100 baht for 100 pills as I recall.
In Vietnam, the generic is Berlthyrox. Even cheaper I think, also available at little pharmacies over the counter.
See here for proof.

Cytomel gets some googles for "mua cytomel ho chi minh"  (mua means 'buy').
I am not seeing any local retail stores matching.
One source is the big online store Shopee. They can probably deliver to your hotel.
Another is a weight lifting Facebook page, you could try asking them in English where to buy.

Googling in Thailand I also found cytomel online.
Ok hope that helps. 

gobot wrote:

Going2Cali wrote:

Many medicines that are restricted in Western countries are available over the counter in Vietnam without prescription.  ... blah blah ... which can backfire with extremely serious consequences ...

Another of the freedoms we enjoy in SE Asia. Less nanny state, more personal responsibility.

Going2Cali wrote:

They don't have Synthroid / Levothyroxine (T4) thyroid medicine.
They don't have Cytomel / Liothyronine Sodium (T3) thyroid medicine.

Oh, never heard of "T4", but I have been taking 100ug synthroid and generics for TSH suppression for 30 years.
In Thailand, you can get Euthyrox ("levothyroxine sodium" I am reading off my box) at any Boots, Watsons, or mall pharmacies. 100 baht for 100 pills as I recall.
In Vietnam, the generic is Berlthyrox. Even cheaper I think, also available at little pharmacies over the counter.
See here for proof.

Cytomel gets some googles for "mua cytomel ho chi minh"  (mua means 'buy').
I am not seeing any local retail stores matching.
One source is the big online store Shopee. They can probably deliver to your hotel.
Another is a weight lifting Facebook page, you could try asking them in English where to buy.

Googling in Thailand I also found cytomel online.
Ok hope that helps. 

I found the Euthyrox in Thailand 50 MG. I need 25 MG, so must cut the pill in half. I take 25 MG of T4 and 25 MG of T3.

I need brand name and not generic of T4. I am not certain if Euthyrox is brand name or generic. I don't do well on the generic. The generic isn't the same formulation as the brand name.

Generics can change a molecule here or there. That can change how the body uses it or doesn't use it. Generics are unreliable. Sometimes they are close enough, other times not even close. It is hit or miss.

From experience I know I don't do well on generic T4 Synthroid. My blood tests are all f-ed up. I feel like a truck ran over me, backed up and ran over me again. Generic doesn't work for me.

Cytomel is T3. It is not sold in Thailand or Malaysia. I am checking with Vietnam hospitals, but so far the answer is no.

Per Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai doctors and pharmacists, per Dara Pharmacy (biggest pharmacy chain in Thailand) T3 is not available anywhere in Thailand. It seems to be banned per what doctors and pharmacists are telling me.

Per the head of pharmacies in Malaysia T3 is not sold or available in Malaysia. It is not sold in Malaysia because it is viewed as a "caucasian problem and not an Asian problem, so there is no need to sell T3 in Malaysia." This is the same attitude in Thailand. It is a WPP (White People Problem) and not an Asian problem in their minds. It is "people problem" but their minds are made up.

T4 is not the same thing as T3. They are different. Different kinds of thyroid disease require different protocols. It depends on the kind you have how you are treated. There are over 30 kinds of thyroid disease and each kind has its own protocol for treatment.

Different basic kinds of protocols:
1. T4 only
2. T3 only
3. T3 and T4 combined - my protocol

If you have Hashimoto's you need T3 and T4 combined together. This is standard. 

Doctors know immediately that I have Hashimoto's once I say, "I need T3." They say, 'You have Hashimoto's, don't you?" They know what it means.

I don't believe any delivery company has legit, real, authentic T3. That is typically fraudulent drugs out of China, Brazil or India. I could get something toxic and it won't contain my medicine.

Ex: Prescription drugs from China were seized in the USA. The drugs were sent to a lab for testing and the results showed they contained NO medicine, BUT what they did contain was fentanyl (famous for killing celebrities such as Prince), reflective road paint used to paint the highway, toxins, pesticides and all sorts of things it is ill advised to put into your body.

Weight lifters are notorious for being unable to get things that are not tainted or mixed with something else. I know enough competitive bodybuilders to know to not trust their source. They don't even know what is in what they take or inject. They are guessing. Smuggled drugs don't come from a reliable source and can be mislabeled with disastrous results.

I am not looking for T3 for vanity. i am looking for it to stay alive. I am not messing with anything off market. It is too dangerous.

gobot wrote:

Going2Cali wrote:

Many medicines that are restricted in Western countries are available over the counter in Vietnam without prescription.  ... blah blah ... which can backfire with extremely serious consequences ...

Another of the freedoms we enjoy in SE Asia. Less nanny state, more personal responsibility.

Going2Cali wrote:

They don't have Synthroid / Levothyroxine (T4) thyroid medicine.
They don't have Cytomel / Liothyronine Sodium (T3) thyroid medicine.

Oh, never heard of "T4", but I have been taking 100ug synthroid and generics for TSH suppression for 30 years.
In Thailand, you can get Euthyrox ("levothyroxine sodium" I am reading off my box) at any Boots, Watsons, or mall pharmacies. 100 baht for 100 pills as I recall.
In Vietnam, the generic is Berlthyrox. Even cheaper I think, also available at little pharmacies over the counter.
See here for proof.

Cytomel gets some googles for "mua cytomel ho chi minh"  (mua means 'buy').
I am not seeing any local retail stores matching.
One source is the big online store Shopee. They can probably deliver to your hotel.
Another is a weight lifting Facebook page, you could try asking them in English where to buy.

Googling in Thailand I also found cytomel online.
Ok hope that helps. 

Looked at the twitter link. It leads to a website.

https://twitter.com/thyroidthailandhttps://www.thyroidthailand.com/

The thyroid medicine they have is mixed T3 and T4 together in one pill. Not the right dosage.

It is not separate. It is already in one pill.

These are what the Bangkok Hospital is calling a "vitamin pill" and sold out of their anti-aging clinic. It is very low dosage of T3 and I can't get to the right dosage with these pills. Not enough T3.

I need 25 MCG of T4 and 25 MCG of T3

Thyroid-S - Too much T4, Not enough T3
Each tablet contains:
38 mcg of Levothyroxine (T4) and
9 mcg of Liothyronine (T3)


Thiroyd - Too much T4, Not enough T3
Each tablet contains:
35 mcg of Levothyroxine (T4) and
8.31 mcg of Liothyronine (T3)

t.r. by t.man - Too much T4, Not enough T3
Each tablet contains:
38 mcg of Levothyroxine (T4) and
9 mcg of Liothyronine (T3)

gobot wrote:

Going2Cali wrote:

Many medicines that are restricted in Western countries are available over the counter in Vietnam without prescription.  ... blah blah ... which can backfire with extremely serious consequences ...

Another of the freedoms we enjoy in SE Asia. Less nanny state, more personal responsibility.

Going2Cali wrote:

They don't have Synthroid / Levothyroxine (T4) thyroid medicine.
They don't have Cytomel / Liothyronine Sodium (T3) thyroid medicine.

Oh, never heard of "T4", but I have been taking 100ug synthroid and generics for TSH suppression for 30 years.
In Thailand, you can get Euthyrox ("levothyroxine sodium" I am reading off my box) at any Boots, Watsons, or mall pharmacies. 100 baht for 100 pills as I recall.
In Vietnam, the generic is Berlthyrox. Even cheaper I think, also available at little pharmacies over the counter.
See here for proof.

Cytomel gets some googles for "mua cytomel ho chi minh"  (mua means 'buy').
I am not seeing any local retail stores matching.
One source is the big online store Shopee. They can probably deliver to your hotel.
Another is a weight lifting Facebook page, you could try asking them in English where to buy.

Googling in Thailand I also found cytomel online.
Ok hope that helps. 

Thank you for trying! I appreciate your efforts.

This is a very complicated problem outside of a Western nation. It is easy to fix this issue in America. I simply get a prescription for T3 and go to the pharmacy or have the mail order pharmacy send it to me. No big deal.

Unfortunately, American pharmacies are banned by the federal government to send prescriptions outside the country.

I did refill my mail order prescription, ship to my parents home and have them ship to me. I won't go into how I got them into the country .... I don't wish to be caught.

I got 3 months this way, but need to figure out how to find more moving forward.

My relatives in Australia checked and said I can get it there.

I checked with Singapore and it is available there. I just need to book a doctor appointment 3-4 months in advance. That is far in advance and I am not sure where I will be 3-4 months from now, so kinda hard to plan a flight to Singapore! ha ha

Going2Cali wrote:

Per Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai doctors and pharmacists, per Dara Pharmacy (biggest pharmacy chain in Thailand) T3 is not available anywhere in Thailand. It seems to be banned per what doctors and pharmacists are telling me.

Per the head of pharmacies in Malaysia T3 is not sold or available in Malaysia. It is not sold in Malaysia because it is viewed as a "caucasian problem and not an Asian problem, so there is no need to sell T3 in Malaysia." This is the same attitude in Thailand. It is a WPP (White People Problem) and not an Asian problem in their minds. It is "people problem" but their minds are made up.

Despite the way they may describe the non-availability as a "caucasian problem," don't assume that it is simply a mater of locals not caring to cater to needs of foreigners.  It is also a supply and demand problem.  In any retail business, which is what a pharmacy is in a free enterprise society, no owner wants to stock exceptionally slow moving inventory.  Slow moving inventory ties up capital and can even become a complete loss if expiration dates come into play, assuming the pharmacy is ethical.

In the US, slow moving inventory or limited total sales is usually offset by massively higher prices for some drugs.  That is not an option in Asia.

THIGV wrote:

Despite the way they may describe the non-availability as a "caucasian problem," don't assume that it is simply a mater of locals not caring to cater to needs of foreigners.  It is also a supply and demand problem.  In any retail business, which is what a pharmacy is in a free enterprise society, no owner wants to stock exceptionally slow moving inventory.  Slow moving inventory ties up capital and can even become a complete loss if expiration dates come into play, assuming the pharmacy is ethical.

In addition, in this heat the correct storage is a problem.

I had some products in bad condition that were still far from their expiration date.  Not only from pharmacies, but also food (e.g. chocolate) and even handkerchiefs (which smelled like cardboard).

I don't know if South Korea is an option for you but they have good healthcare there. I have friends who are Korean American and her husband works in China but he comes back every month. Once a year, they make a trip to South Korea to get their annual physical. She said they have the state of the art medical facilities there and reasonable rates and quick results.

qnbui wrote:

I don't know if South Korea is an option for you but they have good healthcare there. I have friends who are Korean American and her husband works in China but he comes back every month. Once a year, they make a trip to South Korea to get their annual physical. She said they have the state of the art medical facilities there and reasonable rates and quick results.

Thank you for the suggestion. I hadn't considered South Korea as an option. I can look into that country and see what I find.

So far Vietnam hospitals have said, no, we don't have T3. No one carries it.

I can't find my antihistamine nasal spray for allergies either. I wouldn't expect an antihistamine to be so difficult to find. They sell it with steroids added. I don't want steroids.

If all else fails there are some bodybuilding supplement suppliers that sell T3 and T4.

Adhome01 wrote:

If all else fails there are some bodybuilding supplement suppliers that sell T3 and T4.

What is available from the body building community is a set dosage in one pill. it is not adjustable. It is not nearly enough T3 to work for me. I need a medical dosage and not a weightlifting dosage.

The T3 and T4 combined into one pill is not enough T3 and too much T4. I already looked into that. It is not a possibility.

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately it is not a viable option for a medical patient. It is really only for anti-aging and weightlifting.

Hi,
I also have hashimotos, though only diagnosed in 2014.  I've been trying to manage it with diet etc, but to no avail yet.  I have enquired with the GP just today, to which his response was there is no T3 only medication in Australia.  So a little more research and it seems we can only have access to the T4/T3 combo such as triiodothyronineI or its equivalent TERTROXIN (?).   I recently found the T3 supplement on iherb - maybe you've come across it - it has no mention of any T4.  https://au.iherb.com/pr/absolute-nutrit … ules/27664

Gosh, if you have a stash of Cytomel, I'd like some too!!!  I am based in Australia, and was thinking of traveling to Asia to see if I can get the pills.  T4 levothyroxine is the prescribed norm for hashimotos, but more T4 is just making me worse due to the negative feedback loop so I am quitting levothyroxine and giving the T3 supplements a try.  I am desperate and all but given up on the doctors here.