Levothyroxine is a synthetic form of the thyroid hormone thyroxine (T4) that's used to treat an underactive thyroid, known as hypothyroidism. It's the most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with around 123 million prescriptions written in 2016. There's a great deal of misinformation regarding the safety and effectiveness of generic levothyroxine as compared to brand names ...
As noted, the standard treatment for hypothyroidism is levothyroxine (T4) alone. The addition of T3 to the levothyroxine/T4-only treatment—or using DTE—is controversial and the topic of ongoing research and discussion. Once experts realized that T4 naturally converts to T3, there was a great deal of excitement about how modern levothyroxine was compared to DTE, which was considered old ...
Levothyroxine is T4. It is the typical treatment for hypothyroidism.