Hyperthyroid - Fresno,CA

Hyper, as in you are losing weight drastically without changing anything, right? My grandma has that. It got so bad that they had to nuke her thyroid and now she has to take synthyroid for the rest of her life....her weight loss stopped and she's more or less normal now...

Hi D.,

You will find that thyroid diagnoses are common with women but I will tell you that there seems to be all sorts of complications with getting it treated right for some individuals. It has been a long road with lots of not feeling well along the way. After having my first child, I had horrible symptoms of hyperthyroid, NOT any weight loss unfortunately, but mainly being extremely overheated and not able to sleep. I was told that I was just unlucky, lol, about not getting the weight loss symptom and that some people do and some don't. People get different symptoms from the list of possible symptoms.

When I was first diagnosed with hyperthyroid, I was trying to get pregnant for the second time. I was told I had 3 choices: 1.operation to remove my overly functioning thyroid, 2. radiation to destroy my overly functioning thyroid or 3. medication to see if it could be regulated. My doctor recommended the operation for her first choice and the medication as her last choice. But I chose medication as, well of course it was the simplest thing to do, and it would be the quickest route to getting pregnant again. It worked rather quickly and soon afterward I got pregnant with twins!

I was diagnosed with Graves Disease (hyper) and had to be monitored closely. I was told, as did happen, that pregnancy sort of cures it for awhile but afterward, you have to keep a close eye on it. If I remember correctly, I continued to take the medication for part of the pregnancy and told it was safe to do. (My twins are very healthy).

For years, when I went to the doctors for various problems, I told them about my diagnosis of Graves Disease. Finally, it was discovered that I actually had Hashimotos Disease which is the opposite, hypo, but can start out with hyper symptoms before swinging the other way and sometimes people are incorrectly diagnosed.

A few years afterwards, I was feeling like death warmed over and finally found out I had hypothyroid. I was prescribed synthroid and it improved slowly but dramatically.

Since then, I have had all sorts of problems. I have been to regular doctors who talk as though they know all about the thyroid and to the "best" specialists. I have realized that the thyroid is a very difficult problem to understand and treat accurately. The "best" specialist, despite me explaining that the synthroid was not doing it, simply took another blood test and prescribed synthroid again. My sister, who also has hypothyroid and I both complained for years about not feeling well or quite right thyroid wise and both of us were told that our tests were "normal". We knew we were not functioning thyroidally (I think I made that word up!) normal as you get to know the feeling. It was very frustrating. Finally, an acupuncturist (don't be turned off if you don't believe in acupuncture as I have since had my regular doctor favor this route as well), told me about Armour thyroid. Apparently it is a thyroid replacement drug but made from animals thyroid rather than chemicals. It's all sterilized and made in pharmacy standard environment so not to worry, as I did at first, about that. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! My life has been so much better on this stuff. Some doctors don't like it as much as it contains a thyroid hormone they think we don't need if we take synthroid as our body should make it on our own with synthroid but obviously, sometimes it doesn't. My quality of life has improved more than I can tell you although thyroid is still an issue that I could do without as it can change and has to be monitored forever.

I'm sorry to go on about my story but I just want you to be very aware, that the thyroid is a complicated organ and problems with it don't seem to be as straightforward as some doctors make it out to be. I hope you have a much smoother ride than I've had. I have talked with other women, many who have had nothing but problems like me, and others who seem to do fine after treatment. I hope yours can be worked out simply but, just in case, keep all this in mind if you need to advocate for different treatment for yourself. Good luck with it all and take care.

My husband was diagnosed with hyperthyroid caused by graves disease. This was pretty scary at first because he was losing weight like crazy and eating all the time. The treatment options were thyroid radiation or removal and then hormone replacement therapy. If you put it off too long, you could waste away to nothing. So, we did the radiated thyroid. He could not be around the children for a week and he had to eliminate iodized salt. He is now on hormone therapy and he has regular check ups to make sure he is maintaining. The hardest part for me was the irritablity. I was never sure if he was going to be nice to us or not. He was angry all the time. If you are having the irritability, it could put a significant strain on a marriage that is already trying to adjust to a baby. So, I would talk with your significant other and your doctor and come up with a solution. Don't wait to solve the problem or it will cause more than it is worth.

Mark sure they put you on a non-generic medicine i.e. Synthroid. They will put you on medicine and it is OK. I have been taking it for years and no problems.

Good luck....R.

I have HYPO, which is i guessed the one were i gain weigt yes its true about the symptoms for hypo!!! lol,......im taking synthroid cuz i dnt produce hormones myself, i havent gone for blood drawn yet, but im hopin this monday i could!!!!!!!!, last time i went the doc said he didnt see anythin in the results so he's suggestin me to take out blood and wait two weeks, so if i were you wait a while and talk to ur doc. my wic counselor told me synthroid aint bad for ur child if breastfeeding, so doit for health!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure I would feel comfortable doing any permanent treatment. If you are still breastfeeding and you child is only 7 months old, there could be a chance that your hormones are still adjusting. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought the only treatment was to basically destroy the thyroid and take thyroid supplements as a replacement.

I doubt radioactive iodine would be recommended -- I have hyperthyroidism too and my endocrinologist suggested that's more often the best course for someone with lots of health problems and little tolerance for another set of meds and monitoring. Also, as I understand it some thyroid issues can be triggered by pregnancy and are more likely to resolve with little intervention, and 7 months isn't far out of pregnancy. As for the meds, I was on PTU for about a year and found the experience to be a bit of a rollercoaster as the dosage and my body worked things out. I'm off it now (levels stabilized during pregnancy) but am closely monitored and may end up back on at some point after delivery. I do hope to avoid it, but my endocrinologist has assured me PTU is ok during breastfeeding, should I need it. I think there are likely dietary and other methods that can help, too (I had some acupuncture). But I wouldn't worry that you're in for something drastic, and you'll very likely get back to normal with time and whatever treatment you chose.

Research your nutritional alternatives to having your thyroid destroyed. Remember back when doctors removed tonsils the first time they became inflamed, or even before, "to prevent problems"? At that time, doctors thought that the tonsils were useless bits of flesh which could be removed without consequences. Same story for women's uterus and ovaries; doctors used to prescribe hysterectomies to prevent uterine and ovarian cancer! The thyroid gland is central to your endocrine system and your body's entire hormonal balance. It may be over-active because a different part of your endocrine system is out of balance.

[All sites have a space inserted before the dot to make sure they appear]
Visit Mary Shomon's thyroid site at about .com, and also stopthethyroidmadness .com for many links and much support from fellow-travelers. Visit naturalnews .com and mercola .com for sound nutritional advice regarding how to control and rebalance your condition naturally. If you allow your thyroid gland to be destroyed, you have signed up for a life of endocrine imbalance issues. For the sake of your future wellness or lack thereof, research thoroughly before you follow the current AMA "standard of care". History repeats itself, and in a few years or decades, the standard of care will have changed, like it did with tonsillectomies and hysterectomies. You can't fool Mother Nature - original equipment is the best.