Thyroid medications

@daveandmarcia

thank you!

@Roxana Rodriguez31

stick to your guns. I can't take the other crap either and everybody's trying to say oh of course you can, but that's nonsense. it makes me violently sick. I don't know what it does to you but Synthroid which is the brand name for all these different drugs they are mentioning is totally different it's completely synthetic it responds very differently in your body and there's no way you want to take it. And do not apologize lol.

@samramon

The Caja system is fine if you have nothing else but you are 100% correct --if you can afford private insurance you should definitely get it.

@daveandmarcia

I would send you a private message but I don't know how.

@rmikich

i'm another one who needs armour or np thyroid (the generic) and from what I can tell it is not available in Costa Rica at all. I'm still trying to figure out what to do about that. I'm either going to have to fly back to the United States once a year and just fill it without insurance and carry a year's supply back or have one of my brothers-in-law bring it down because they plan to visit a lot. There is evidently someway of getting things shipped here but I haven't found out how it works yet and it would probably be very expensive with the import taxes. Cheaper to fly home and say hello to everybody and pick it up myself.

    @daveandmarcia
I would send you a private message but I don't know how.
   

    -@dappleswhat04

Click on that green circle where your picture would go, then click on "Send Message".

To reach the outfit based in Heredia who can import drugs, among other things, in WhatsApp type "valana" and ask for instructions on registering with their service.

@rmikich

from what I can tell it's not available but… One other thing that I need is compounded hormones and there are compounding pharmacies in Costa Rica. So I have an email out to one of them to ask if they can compound the equivalent of the armour thyroid. it should actually be very easy for them so I won't be surprised if they say yes. I'll let you know what I find out.

@Roxana Rodriguez31

hi I've been exploring this question very thoroughly and the fact is there is no armour or NP thyroid available in Costa Rica. none at all. Not even a compounding pharmacy will create it for you. All these people talking about the brands they take are talking about something entirely different that I cannot take at all and presumably you can't either. So the only thing you can do is import it from the United States yourself in your suitcase, or see if you can find it in a nearby country. I can't find it in Nicaragua but I'm still looking. I doubt Panama has it but I will look there next.

In the United States it is possible to get desiccated thyroid without a prescription by simply purchasing it as a supplement - which is not the same thing as NP or armor but it's very very close. The hard part is getting a good brand that has reliable formulations so you can figure out what amount works for you but again, I have no idea if you can get these in Costa Rica.

@nardab

no. The answer is a flat no. I have explored this with Farmacias in Costa Rica and there is absolutely no way to get it -- not even through a compounding Pharmacy. You have to bring it yourself, have your friends bring it down when they visit you, that's all you can do. I'm trying to see if they have it in Nicaragua or Panama but haven't had much luck yet...

@nardab

I thought I might've responded elsewhere but the answer is a flat no. I have been in correspondence with a Costa Rican compounding pharmacy and it is simply not available anywhere in Costa Rica. The government decides which drugs to make available in Costa Rica and this is not one of them. i'm going to try buying a large supply for myself and bringing it in since it's very small tablets (I use NP thyroid which is slightly cheaper but it would still be very pricey to buy a years worth out of pocket with a prescription) but other than that or having friends and relatives bring it down I'm not sure what to do. I cannot take the alternative drugs everybody is constantly telling us about so don't pay any attention to that suggestion because you wouldn't be on armour if you could take the synthetic.

@bill2054

it does not fly in the face of science and guess what many of us are violently allergic to Synthroid so obviously just pouring T4 into us does not solve our problems it just makes us very sick

@TerrynViv

this has been done! There is no desiccated thyroid either armour or NP available in Costa Rica. It is not on the government list and therefore they do not import it.

@bill2054

you don't know what you're talking about. You need to stop pretending you're a doctor.

@rmikich

I have done a lot of research and there is no way to do it. I am in contact with a compounding pharmacy in San Jose Costa Rica and according to them it is not available anywhere in the country because the government decides what drugs are imported and it's not on the list. Dave and Marcia, above in this forum, have given people some clues about how to do this via local services that will import things for you for inexpensive rates. That seems to be the only solution besides dragging a year supply down which is likely to cost $1000 or more out of pocket because insurance won't pay for  a year supply.

@nardab

NO

@nardab

NP thyroid is another another brand available in the US FYI I don't know if that helps you but none of them are available in Costa Rica. It's a huge problem. please ignore all the people in this forum who believe they know better than you about your health and try to tell you that Synthroid is the exact equivalent because it's not even close and many of us cannot take Synthroid at all because of severe digestive side effects.

@nardab

I wish I understood what you were saying but I can't take Synthroid at all so it doesn't sound like it would work for me.

    The dessicated thyroid bit flies in the face of science and personal experience.
Been taking Synthroid, Eltroxin, and whatever other brands were locally available for twenty odd years, as has my sister and our mother before us.I suspect you are enamoured of the "natural" classification. I like FDA scientific studies, personally.
   

    -@bill2054

certainly medical science would like to think you're correct with the fact is many people cannot use Synthroid because of its side effects or because they also require some T3 supplementation whether you and the medical profession like it or not. There's a reason why millions of doses of NP thyroid are prescribed a year and it's not because everybody's an old hippie outdated beliefs about how the high thyroid works. The outdated beliefs about how the thyroid works are reflected in the Synthroid frankly. The idea that only one element out of 1000 produced by your thyroid is plenty to go on with when somebody has cut the entire organ out of your throat? obviously absurd. 

@sandrariches

I guess I would refrigerate it but I get bottles here in the United States that last me for six months and I've never had that problem. Good thing to know

@cassaundrajames

these aren't the thyroid meds they are talking about but thank you for the information

@juliett007

that is what I have found 100% correct