Is Thyroiditis the same as Hashimotos?

[EC78]

Had my results phone call this morning regarding my ultrasound from the ENT Dr

Thyroid is enlarged and inflamed but thankfully nothing suspicious or any nodules.

She said it's Thyroiditis. However, last week my Dr said she suspects Hashimoto's as my antibodies had doubled in 3 months to over 1,200 but TSH was back under 5 to 4.3. Are Thyroiditis and Hashis the same thing?

She is going recommend that I'm referred to an Endo, so I suppose that's the next step for me.

Have also started my Gluten Free diet, hard to tell if it's made a difference just yet but will stick with it .

Hope you are all well

[tattybogle]

In your case i believe, yes, thyroiditis is the same as hashimoto's. Based on your history of having raised TPOab, and TSH rising over the last few years from 3 something , which is already a bit higher than 'healthy' which for most people is around 1 or 2 as shown here :- healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

As Autoimmune Hypothyroidism(Hashimoto's Thyroiditis is another name for this, but in UK most Doctors don't use this name) progresses over the years ,the TSH will rise as more of the thyroid is attacked. Until eventually your fT4 is below range and your TSH is over range. At this point it's called 'overt hypothyroidism'. If only the TSH is over range but the fT4 is still within range, it's called 'sub-clinical hypothyroidism'. but they can treat at this point if you have symptoms. (They do require a repeat test showing over range TSH , to rule out a temporary issue.)

Once someone has raised TPOab they keep an eye on thyroid , because raised TPOab is an indication of an increased chance that the person will eventually become overtly hypothyroid, but it can take years to get bad enough for them to consider giving replacement hormone treatment (Levothyroxine, which is synthetic T4)

There are other kinds of thyroiditis, which are different, some of them are temporary. For example nhs.uk/conditions/thyroiditis/

[tattybogle in reply to tattybogle]

ps have you had a repeat thyroid blood test since the first over-range TSH on your post a couple of months ago ?

>12000 . heck , that's a lot of antibodies ... i thought i had 'a lot' at 2499 followed by >3000 done 6 weeks later.

[EC78 in reply to tattybogle]

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Sorry I've added an extra 0 it was meant to be 1,200 :))

In October my TSH was 5.3 (from memory) and Antibodies were 685 but January test showed TSH as 4.2 but antibodies were over 1,200. Just waiting to here from my Dr now over the next step

[tattybogle in reply to EC78]

'o' h well that's probably for the best , i don't suppose having 12000 would be any fun either .

So is the 4.2/3 ? now within their lab range again ?

(lab may use a machine with a different range to the private test you had, so don't assume range is the same as [0.27-4.2] )

[EC78 in reply to tattybogle]

I'm not sure of the ranges as for my latest results the Dr phoned me and told me over the phone. I suppose I should ask for a print of these to compare. Thanks

[Farrugia]

Good luck with the gluten free trial. For me it took a while to feel the benefit but twelve months on I think it has really helped. I had terrible sugar cravings (unusual for me as I don't eat much sugar) for the first couple of weeks but got over that. If you like cooking then I really recommend Naomi Devlin's book The River Cottage gluten free book. I got it from my library initially. She has a website too. If you don't like cooking then I've found the M&S gluten free range tastes best - that's assuming you're in the uk.