How long should I try with meds before moving to surgery

[Ponkysue]

Someone mentioned an article by a Dr A Trott (whcih I can't now find) which looked to be a very good advocate of not jumping to surgery

[PurpleNails Administrator]

Do you mean this article?

rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...

[Ponkysue in reply to PurpleNails]

thank you so much yes!

[shaws Administrator in reply to Ponkysue]

Dr Toft is also the physician to the Queen when she's in Scotland.

He has also changed some of his views.

[Lalatoot]

I was on carbimazole for 5 years with 2 attempts during that time to come off it completely to see if the hyper returned.

[Alexkjones in reply to Lalatoot]

I’m 7 yrs into carbo with 2 failed attempts. I’m hanging onto my thyroid for as long as possible. You never know what new therapies may be developed in time.

[Lalatoot in reply to Alexkjones]

I never felt well on carbi and reckoned I'd be better being hypo and the endo seemed keen for me to take that route too, as they often are.

[Ponkysue in reply to Lalatoot]

And what happened? Where you on thyroxin as well?

[Ponkysue in reply to Lalatoot]

What happened? We’re you on thyroxin? Do you have Graves?

[Lalatoot in reply to Ponkysue]

I don't have Graves but I was hyper. I never felt well on my maintenance dose of carbi so I opted for RAI. I am now hypo and it has been a long journey to get balanced. I don't regret the RAI though as I wouldn't have been well either on long term carbi.

[tattybogle]

These two posts might interest you:-

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[pennyannie]

In short - for as long as it takes for your immune system response to calm down, bringing with it lower and in range antibodies : if well on AT medication, you could be on them, on and off throughout your life as we are looking at an auto immune disease and an immune system malfunction and currently there is no solution - medically - to this AI disease.

Graves is said to be stress and anxiety driven and we as Graves sufferers need to be looking at our own individual " triggers " - :

The thyroid is the victim in all this - it is not the cause - the cause is your immune system malfunctioning.

I've replied also on your other post - and your issue is more one of the goitre :

If this starts to impinge on your throat and give you difficulties breathing and eating, obviously a rethink maybe necessary, but this may never happen, or be years and years away in the making - we haven't any information to say anything more specific.

[austin___]

Hello,I am in the US and had Graves disease and was treated for over 15 years with differing levels of Methimazole doses generally ranging from 3-10mg. Finally, I developed a large goiter and was treated with Radioiodine and became hypothyroid. In retrospect I am happy that I treated the graves disease and put off removing the thyroid for as long as I could. The side effects from hypothyroidism-lack of energy and foggy thinking- and the difficulty in working out the medication combination have been much more challenging than Graves disease.