Looking at more recent entries to this site it makes me wonder if doctors still have the view that thyroid problems are mainly seen in older/middle aged women and therefore. Not recognising it in the young. I would say my problems were present from teenage years if not before but not diagnosed, after being over and underactive on a two year cycle until I was 28. My daughter showed all the signs at 15 but again was told maybe she was anaemic but I insisted her thyroid was tested and I was right.
There still seems a presumption of women almost normally being in a state of tiredness, worrying about weight etc - all the old labels and not too far removed from the Victorian diagnosis of Hysteria. I also had my older brother tested correctly when he was in his 50s.
Still seems that sexism is alive and well in the world of the thyroid! Anyone agree?
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Catseyes235
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I'm guessing that Greybeard is male. I have read quite a lot of posts from men over the years who had a hard time getting diagnosed with a thyroid problem. I think in their case it is because thyroid issues are assumed to be female, and it wouldn't occur to a doctor to look for a thyroid problem amongst male patients. So, it isn't just the young who suffer from stereotypes about thyroid disease, it is men too.
I get that but I have known several men go to their doctor with symptoms of tiredness and all had thyroid function tested! There’s been no question that they could be simply neurotic!
Perhaps it’s the question that women will seek for answers to their problems where men will brush them under the carpet and delay a visit to the doctor. Male pride and all that. An attitude across the board as unmake. Perhaps not so much now but the stiff upper lip was unwittingly encouraged.
Ha ha I have just retyped something in a text ..thrice! But then I've just had an injection in eye for AMD so I have an excuse. It will be the evil Google where they hate made up or unusual words but I got your drift straight off. Not sure the ratio of female:male sufferers But probably the same as male:female doctors 30 years ago?
This was not the case with me, been taking medication for my thyroid gland since I was a child which was over sixty odd years ago. My Mum had to fight to find out what was wrong with me, she was just told she was a fussing Mother.
Ditto, elwins ! 57 years and Mum was told not to fuss, I just had cold! Luckily she knew me better and persisted until I was seen by someone who knew his stuff!
Slightly off topic but when my daughter kept getting tonsillitis the doctor made us a hospital appointment - a nurse at the hospital described me to a doctor there as a fussy mother!
I think women get a harder time because they represent a greater number of sufferers with this illness, but getting a diagnosis is hard for both sexes.
I think i had some signs as a teenager (cold hands being the main one), but never got any help in my 20's when i became ill. I self diagnosed and treated in my later 30's and so provided proof to the NHS i did need treatment. They eventually agreed.
I had some symptoms and saw doctor about them in my 30s and 40s - first time was told, 'it's like having a faulty thermostat,' second time doctor looked at the whites of my eyes and said I was slightly anaemic!
I don't think it crosses their minds 'thyroid' for anyone.
I was not 'young' but I was given diagnosis of this and that and even an operation on my throat to remove a lump - I had no such thing and believe it was a swollen thyroid gland but I didn't get any money back. I felt dreadful and eventually had to diagnose myself when TSH was 100 by then. Believe me I felt awful and was by then bed-bound!.
Catseyes235, Yes I believe many do. We've had all sorts of stories reported in this forum, such as 'you're too young to have a thyroid problem' and 'only women get thyroid problems'. So not just sexism, but ageism too.
Yes that’s what I meant too ...only a middle aged women’s disease which makes me wonder if like so many other diseases which seem more prevalent today whether there is an environmental element ..background radiation, pollution etc?
I was diagnosed with this middle aged women's disease 32 years ago when I was 14. My mum noticed I had a goitre, GP referred me and I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's very quickly. To be honest, I've never had much trouble getting GPs to change my dose either, but I'm a good converter (since I started on iron, B12 and vitamin D supplements) so I'm lucky enough not to have had the T3 nightmare that so many of you go through.
I seem to have converted well for 30 years but now one doc wants me to cut dose as I am not 'within the normal range' despite feeling fine. My own doc seems happy if I'm happy! First doc and some hospital endos - all male - treated women with amazing arrogance - still seems to be happening sadly. I often wondered what those old training manuals said?!
From what I've read thyroid disease is prevalent at any time hormones rapidly change, such as puberty, pregnancy, menopause. Hormones change for men as they get older too. Thyroid disease can also be due to low iodine levels. Some people like me have no genetic history of thyroid disease, but have genetic history for auto immune disease, so it looks like something 'triggered' mine, possibly a thyroidectomy operation when I was aged 10.
I too am not sure that doctors have caught up with this and still think it's an old women's disease.
I've heard it linked to sun exposure and sun burn and traumatic events too. Maybe death of father when young triggered something. I can't do sunshine. Not sure if enough research into causes.
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 42 and I had symptoms for 10 years prior to that! It cost me my career, I had a bad bought of anxiety sand depression, 5 years of chronic joint pain... and I carried my son through my pregnancy still undiagnosed which meant he is lucky to be here. He was a 5lb baby. So yep completely agree.
It took years for me to be diagnosed and I first fell ill at 32. At 35, a consultant told me I had fibromyalgia and, I'm not joking, said, "because every 35-year-old woman who comes in here has fibromyalgia". I knew it wasn't, burst into tears and the nurse asked me if I wanted to make a complaint. I'm still, at 39, struggling to get adequate treatment. My consultant ran a blood test at the end of February (only because I pushed him to), my results were 0.84 TSH, 10.1 T4, 3.0 T3 and he has said he is "not concerned" and doesn't need to see me.
I'm 29 weeks' pregnant with twins and my symptoms have never gone away. Both twins are large for gestational age, as my three year old was, and I understand that can be caused by an underactive thyroid.
I'm so devastated. My GP has asked the consultant for an explanation, because he failed to send the reference ranges with the test results. If they're the same ranges as usual, my levels are below range for both T4 and T3. I'm on 175mcg levo every day.
I don't understand why endocrinologists won't treat people properly.
That is disgusting treatment. Maybe we need to make more complaints to medical boards etc. Trouble is it us difficult to fight when you feel so low and just so relieved when you do feel better. I did meet a medical solicitor who said I would have had good grounds for complaint had I done something earlier.
You are entitled to get a print out of any results from your docs so do - and take it with you to any appointments. You could be over medicated but then I’m not sure what the parameters are when pregnant so need to consult soon as you can with your obstetrics department. Don’t be scared to contact them yourself. Have a look through this site for anything else on thyroid and pregnancy. Good luck!
Thank you, I'm definitely not overmedicated, my results are well below range. Waiting to hear from gp, who seemed unhappy with what the endocrinologist had done, and if I don't hear by the end of today, I'll call tomorrow. If no joy, I'll make a complaint. It's such a shame that things have to come to this. All I want is to get the right treatment! The obstetric consultant didn't mention my thyroid at all and it was a long time ago now we saw her. Got another appt in a couple of weeks.
Hello again sorry I’m confused ....you say your results are well below range. That would suggest over medication eg. My TSH was 0.01 and doc wants me to reduce my thyroxine. People are hypothyroid and undermedicated when TSH is high. Just checking!?
Kitty do you go to a combined clinic for anti natal and endocrinology as you are pregnant I had been diagnosed by the time I had my 3rd child and lived in London at the time and I was sent to a combined clinic during my pregnancy I found this very helpful at the time It was 33 years ago and I was in early 30s as I remember also being classed as an older mother! But my point for you was all was dealt with at same time for my baby’s best interest and thyroid treatment I have since moved back to Scotland and Iv never heard of combined clinics even though my middle daughter has under active thyroid too and gave birth to twins 10years ago there was no mention of a combined clinic to send her to here I’m just wondering surely this combined clinic has not been done away with?
I was diagnosed at 35 following the birth of my daughter, my son was diagnosed at 22 while joining the RAF and my daughter was diagnosed at 14 although I was actually thinking ADHD at the time. She got that too.
Just watching an ad for Medicheck saying you can check your thyroid etc . . Shoukd not be needed here but maybe reflects difficulties some have getting diagnosis. Certainly a few in my family with the condition. I do wonder if there us much genetic work done on this.
Statistically thyroid does happen more in women and more as we get old. Though less common it is a metabolic condition and can happen at any age. I got it in my late thirties after being on ERT (which I later read can cause low thyroid) for about 8 years.
I think as parents we have to be our children's advocates and insist a doctor look at things that run in our family like early thyroid issues did with you. I have a great doctor and he would have no problem if I told him I had it early and to please check my child. I might even fudge a little and say several relatives had it early You do what you gotta do to get their attention. If it's normal maybe ask to have every year even when there aren't symptoms since things tend to be genetic.
There are hundreds of thousands of diseases and as doctors get older themselves and have more experience they see patterns in their practices as well. They have to listen to symptoms and through deduction, while we WAIT (ugh), find the answer.
Keep in mind, if you are here in the US, you can order tests online and do finger prick TSH, T3, T4, and antibodies yourself. I do it mid year and if my numbers aren't normal I run it over to the doctor's office for dosage adjustment. everlywell.com/
Keep us up and what you find out. I'm actually glad he's checking her iron. My daughter was terribly anemic and since it doesn't run in my family it totally caught me off guard. Fresh eyes are good sometimes as well. Her's is from heavy periods. The IUD with progesterone was her cure.
I remember a surgeon sat across the desk from me when I was about to have my gallbladder removed. He stated that blond, overweight women, of around sixty were the most lightly to have this gallbladder problem.
I pointed out to him that I was a brunette, slim, yes around sixty I said 2 of of three won't do. He didn't like being rebuffed but his nurse was smiling. Talk about outdated notions.
Feels like we’ve gone from being told what traits etc women have, to mansplaining to what? Luckily most men I’ve known haven’t been stereo typical and the docs of old are a dying breed but if you see what trolls still do secretly to women online it does make you wonder ...they are next to be rooted out.
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You do what you gotta do to get their attention. If it's normal maybe ask to have every year even when there aren't symptoms since things tend to be genetic.
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