12yr old girl with goitre

Hi first post my daughter has a goitre which first appeared April this year she has always been a bit anxious,we lost her dad 4yrs ago,but she participated in everything in school and after school clubs, she went up to high school last August 2015,everything was fine no problems then come April 2016 anxiety don't want to go to school like someone had swapped my child.so I go to doc she does the regular thyroid after I request it, test comes back fine,still not convinced so ask her again to look at my daughters neck and she agrees with me,very swollen,well you couldn't miss this swelling ,and refers her to ENT waiting on appt and getting more concerned about my daughters health so I fone everyday for cancellation and eventually get appt,anyways they said she had all symptoms of overactive thyroid and did more blood tests comes back she has antibodies and do more blood tests and a scan last week but what I would like to know is could this be causing my daughters anxiety as I feel it really escalated with the goitre my doc says she expects a clinical diagnosis but doesn't think he anxiety and thyroid are related any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

[shaws Administrator]

First, I am so sorry your 12year old child has a problem with her (most likely) thyroid gland.

Re asking GPs/Endos about problems with the thyroid gland we don't get the correct answers as they're told only to refer to the TSH (and ignore symptoms - neither do they know any).

An answer to your question is 'yes' anxiety can be caused by a dysfunction of her thyroid gland.

When your daughter has a blood test it is preferable to have the earliest possible fasting test as the TSH is highest then and that's all doctors refer to for treatming instead of clinical symptoms (of which they are unaware).

I shall give you a link of symptoms of both hyper/hypo as we don't quite know what your daughter has.

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

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

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

If your daughter has thyroid antibodies she has an Autoimmune Thyroid Disease called hashimotos (last link). She should be given thyroid hormones for this condition even her blood tests are 'normal'.

Always get a print-out from now on of her blood tests, with the ranges for your own records and you can post for comments.

This is a link re goitre:

nhs.uk/conditions/goitre/pa...

When she is on thyroid hormones levothyroxine should be taken first thing on an empty stomach with 1 full glass of water and wait about an hour before eating. Food interferes with the uptake of hormones. Or, it can be taken at bedtime as long as last eaten about 2 hours before.

When having a blood test it should be the earliest possible a.m. and about 24 hours should elapse between last dose of levo and the test so the bedtime dose should be missed and it can be taken after blood test and the night dose can be taken as usual.

(I am not medically qualified - I have hypothyroidism).

[JKnott in reply to shaws]

I'd like to add a clarification in response to this reply. If your daughter has antibodies, it could equally be Graves' disease rather than Hashimotos. These two autoimmune diseases have opposite effects: Hashimotos causes an under-active (hypo-active) thyroid, while Graved' causes an over-active (hyper-active) thyroid. The treatments for each of these are opposite: for Hashimotos your daughter would need extra thyroid hormone, whereas for Graves' she would need medication to suppress the production of thyroid hormone. So if antibodies have been detected, it's really important to know which of the two it is.

I know more about Graves' than Hashimotos, because I have it (I'm not medically qualified). The symptoms include: anxiety, goitre, excessive heat, weight loss, and sometimes eye problems (staring eyes). My Graves'was first picked up when I went to the GP with anxiety and he spotted my staring eyes, and also checked for goitre. Blood tests confirmed my thyroid was very hyperactive.

So in a nutshell: it's possible your daughter has Graves' but you would need to get this fully chrcked out

[madge1979 in reply to JKnott]

I agree with all of the above from JKnott

Sound advice !

Mx🌹

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Thanks for your replies, I am waiting on appt from endo I think it may be graves even though my doc says her thyroid function is normal,she has more overactive symptoms and both of her grandparents had overactive I just feel that doc isn't listening everyday my daughter feels ill and it's being put down to anxiety,she also says she has a horrible smell in her nose that won't go away and my doc says that's anxiety too,anyways I'm glad I found this site thanks again everyone

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Thank you sandy I'll look into that this is all new to me I've been told she has been referred and they have done more bloods and an ultrasound just over a week ago but I've heard nothing yet hopefully I will know more soon