How do you get to be Hypothyroid?

[gojo1]

I have seen many reasons from genetic to environment and just wondered how much real evidence there is for each case. I was diagnosed five years ago and now take 175 micrograms of levo. Can it also be attributed to physical causes as my husband grabbed me by the throat (around 2001)and I had a car accident. Would appreciate your views. Both my nans had overactive. My mother has no problem.

[shaws Administrator]

Accidents, i.e. whiplash can cause injury to your thyroid gland and I assume if your throat was squeezed the same thing might happen. I believe most is autoimmune for some reason or another.

Some people have their thyroid gland's removed and other ones are attacked by antibodies.

[gojo1 in reply to shaws]

Many thanks, getting rather fed up with having it now. Obviously everyone here is also and looking for an answer. It is on my doctors notes that he did that, but anytime you speak to the professionals they don't deal with causes or look at previous notes. All down to the numbers!

[shaws Administrator in reply to gojo1]

You are right. They just look at the numbers and prescribe medication. Never ask family history, previous illnesses etc and think it is so easy. Diagnose by the TSH and prescribe medication.

Nowadays they are apt to prescribe too low a dose to keep 'you' in the 'range' whereas most of us feel far better with a TSH of around 1 or lower. You will learn as you go along. Some do feel fine on levo but others don't so I hope it suits you.

[gojo1]

I am not sure as they keep increasing it and I have to have blood test every six months. My really good doctor died at christmas last year from cancer. So for the last year I have had various doctors and different brands of medication. So confusing!

[greygoose in reply to gojo1]

It is normal to have a blood test every six weeks, followed by an increase. Increasing has to be done very slowly, to avoid stress to the body, so it takes time to get to your optimal dose.

But if you feel that your doctors are messing you around, as they often do, you have to start putting your foot down and demanding the treatment you know you need - things such as not dosing by the TSH, keeping the same brand, etc.

But when it comes to the cause, that is more difficult. You can't always know. There aren't any blood tests that will tell you, yes, it was caused by this, or that. Certainly injury to the gland can cause it, but there's no way of proving it. The only thing that can be proved by a blood test is autoimmune thyroiditis. You can test for antibodies that will show if you have Hashimoto's. Or even Graves, come to that, as two members or your family were hyper. Or, ask for your iodine to be tested, because low iodine can also cause you to be hypo. But apart from that, there's no real way of knowing at this time. If more interest were taken in thyroid diseases and their causes, they might be able to find a way of telling. But as it is, thyroid is of little interest to anyone but those that suffer from it. Sad, but true.