Whether Thyroid (Hyper) is curable?

[Kesab-Majumdar]

If Thyroid (Hyper) is curable then what's the remedy to get relief from medicine and due check up of blood and so on. Is it necessary to continue taking medicine after it's normal tendency persists for a few monthts and so on.

[marram]

Overactive thyroid can get better sometimes, but most of the time it needs to be treated by a specialist. You will need to take drugs which will slow down the thyroid activity. Some people can stay on the drugs indefinitely but still need to have blood tests every six months or so to make sure that their thyroid has not changed.

Some people take the drug for several years, and find that they have got better, and can stop the drugs,

Some people do that, and then find that they become overactive again after stopping the drugs. If that happens, then the consultant may decide that the thyroid needs to be removed surgically or destroyed with radioactive Iodine (RAI).

After that, it is usual for the patient to take thyroxine for the rest of his or her life.

As you can see there are a few things which can be done, but it is important that a specialist monitors the patient's health.

If you want to learn more, this link to the main website of Thyroid UK can help:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

I hope that this can help you to decide what to do.

Marie XX

[vajra]

These are just personal impressions K-M, but from speaking to some hyperthyroid patients (i had a thyroidectomy, but for other reasons) one common complaint was that they by implication expected a cure - when in practice the reduction in hormone output delivered by surgery or radioactive iodine (in reality a rather crude treatment) seems often to be rather less than precisely predictable.

There's seemingly the real possibility too that whatever disease process caused the hyperthyroidism in the first place may remain active in the thyroid, leading to the possibility that the hormone output may as a result of this vary too.

While it's possible that surgery or whatever will reduce the output of the thyroid to a correct level for you, it seems more likely that as Marie and the linked piece say that ongoing treatment will be required. Either more drugs to reduce output, or seemingly more likely replacement thyroid hormone because the patient has been left hypothyroid (not producing enough hormone) and hence suffering the normal symptoms. (fatigue etc)

I've seen a few report that they didn't feel well again until e.g. autoimmune disease progressed to the point where they eventually had surgery to remove the remainder of the thyroid and started into a properly optimised complete replacement of hormone. Possibly because depending on what caused the over activity in the first place it may be that it makes it more difficult to find a replacement regime that works well. (thyroid auto immune disease for example seems to mess with some of the processes by which we use hormone)

Getting a hormone replacement regime working properly to leave the patient feeling well may entail getting past the fairly commonly arising hypothyroidism related issues that can be read of on this site - a competent doctor or endocrinologist prepared to treat to symptoms is often needed unless we're lucky enough that the stock T4 (single hormone) replacement protocol works.

There's a choice to be made between radioactive iodine and surgery too - but it sounds as though surgery may now be (?) more common because it's less likely to produce unexpected side effects.

There's serious risks with leaving hyperthyroidism untreated too, so in common with many of us it becomes a case of making the best choices we can - but after that of dealing with issues should they arise.

Good luck with your reading, decisions and whatever treatment you choose. The good news is that it's possible to get sorted and to do very well....

ian