Small Thyroid

[missrees]

Hello Team!

Thanks for all the posts and all the information that everyone shares on this brilliant forum - thank God we’ve got us!

I ‘d like your opinion - if I could:

I was diagnosed underactive 5 years ago by GP aged 42 through a general blood test, put on Levoxo and blew up like a balloon and more symptoms than before diagnosis. At 43 I was told I was post menopausal although I was still having my periods and went on HRT because hot flashes were a nightmare and worried about bone density. I switched to Thyroid-S - buying from Thailand - under the knowledge of my GP and agreement that I could still receive regular checks. I slept that week and had normal bowel movements - it felt like a miracle. I still take that although I still have some symptoms - tinnitus, thinning hair, brain fog, easily fatigued - alcohol kills me! - but mostly okay and still so thankful to the team in Thailand. I live in a state of anxiety worrying what would happen if that stopped.

I had a scan a couple of months ago as I was complaining of a lump in my throat and GP kindly agreed. It turns out that I have a small thyroid - half the size of a normal one - right lobe 7mm and left lobe 4mm. ‘No increase in vascularity, no clinical concern. Reflectivity in the colour flow is normal.’

My antibodies are low - which would indicate I don’t have Hashimoto’s?

Anti-thryoglobulin abs: <15. (0.00-60.00)

Anti-tpo antibodies: <28. (0.00-60.00)

My question is why is my thyroid small? Could I be born like that - would explain quite a lot - or is it just getting smaller?

My other results are:

Vit D: 100 (50-150)

Free T3: 8.4 (3.50-6.50) - I’ve since dropped back down to 3 NDT tablets and think it’s better.

Ferritin: 8.4 (3.50-6.50)

TSH: 0.01 (0.30-5.50)

T4: 15.4 (9.00 - 25.00)

B12: 509 (180.0-1100.0)

Anyone else got that? or anyone see anything in my results that I should be rectifying?

Have a lovely day ✊🏻

Claire

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Most likely you have ord's Thyroiditis

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ord...

Rest of the world apart from UK classifies Hashimoto's (enlarged thyroid ) and ord's (shrunken and shrivelled thyroid) as both being Hashimoto's

[MaisieGray in reply to SlowDragon]

Not necessarily so.

Danish researchers wrote:

Context: Primary overt autoimmune hypothyroidism is often divided into primary idiopathic hypothyroidism with thyroid atrophy (Ord’s disease) and hypothyroidism with goitre (Hashimoto’s disease).

Objective: The aim of the present study was to characterize the two subtypes of disease.

Conclusion: In primary autoimmune hypothyroidism, thyroid volume follows a normal distribution. Cases with thyroid atrophy and goiter are only extremes within this distribution and do not represent separate disorders. However, patients with low vs. high thyroid volume differ with respects to several characteristics.

"Thyroid volume in hypothyroidism due to autoimmune disease follows a unimodal distribution: evidence against primary thyroid atrophy and autoimmune thyroiditis being distinct diseases". Carlé et al

[MaisieGray]

Well you can't necessarily equate small with dysfunction as you imply - "would explain a lot" - just as you can't necessarily equate large with healthy and functional; and unless you had had your thyroid measured whilst euthyroid you can't know what were the natural healthy dimensions of your adult thyroid. However, with thyroid disease your thyroid can of course, atrophy over time, and it may be that that this is what has been happening to yours - when the sonographer scanned my thyroid at the point of my having then been on Levo for 30yrs, she actually gasped lol, and told me it it was smaller than a child's. However, in your case you were told there was no increase in vascularity, no clinical concern, and reflectivity in the colour flow is normal, so perhaps it simply is what it is.

[greygoose]

Yes, I have a very small thyroid - well, that's what they said when I had an ultrasound 20 years ago - I wonder if it still exists, now. I had high antibodies on diagnosis, and always say I have Hashi's - although, I suppose technically, I have Ord's. But, Ord's is still autoimmune.

It is possible to have Hashi's without ever having high antibodies, so I presume the same is true of Ord's. Although, in any case, one negative blood test can't rule out anything with these antibodies, because they fluctuate all the time.