We have seen many, many images of hypothyroid females in the past weeks - to the extent that members could be forgiven for thinking it was a uniquely female disorder.
For that reason, I have located some historical images of a male before and after eight and a half months of treatment. We need to see both even if by far the majority are female.
I have seen all sorts of claims for female: male ratio - this link claims 6:1. So an awful lot of males!
Thank you helvella for this great post. I'm afraid that thyroid issues does not discriminate when it comes to males females and even children. However I read somewhere that percentage wise thyroid issues is much higher in females.
Thanks for this important reminder.When those pictures were taken, patients were treated with NDT, hence, regrowth of hair & what looks like a very good recovery. I wonder if he would have done so well on T4 only?.....
We should bear in mind that these ratios (I've seen 10:1) only refer to diagnosed cases which usually means autoimmune hypothyroidism. Other causes such as endocrine disruption probably have a 1:1 ratio and some like central hypothyrodism resulting from a period of thyrotoxicity probably have a female predominance. Each time we cite a ratio we are unconsciously excluding those who have not been diagnosed.
Each time we cite a ratio we are unconsciously excluding those who have not been diagnosed.
Very much agree and glad you posted.
Medicine is chock full of such things.
The old aphorism about hearing hooves and thinking horses not zebras, is all very well. Statistically, it makes sense. But we need to see the lack of stripes to be sure. Until we do, we must keep in mind that it could still be zebras. Or the various other equids such as donkeys and asses.
One thing that probably makes it less obvious that men suffer from thyroid disease is that few of them seem to join health-related forums like this one.
lol .glad i'm not the only one who just spent 10 minutes looking up the history of shirt collars ... i found plenty that match very closely from the 20s and 30s .. but of course we don't know if it's a bloke in the 1940's wearing a 10 yr old shirt collar. In the photo with the dressing gown , is that a collarless shirt he's wearing .. or is it just his pyjama top with the collar in a mess ?
When did blokes stop wearing separate collars anyway ?
( No i haven't got anything better to do .. i'm waiting for my bolognaise to thicken up )
Mind, I wore a detechable collar shirt (stiff, starched collars, buttons only halfway down, studs (of course), etc.) at school. It wasn't quite as fancy as the one you have shown!
I didn’t know you were that old helvella! I can’t remember my brother or dad wearing anything like those - nylon shirts were all the rage but I think you could get detachable collars even for them
I have been trying to find the term for the style we had.
They were similar to many evening dress shirts in having a bib area which actually had two layers of material. But that was cut off square at about diaphragm level - not tapered. And not some fancy pleating - just plain.
In some ways they were very like grandad shirts but I usually think of those as being made in striped fabric.
Many, but not all, were Van Heusen brand.
I think that by the time I was wearing them, the uniform store only had a small number left. Likely they had been there for years before being issued. There were quite a few modern-style shirts which you wouldn't be at all surprised to find today.
Good lord they sound highly formal it must have been a posh school! We were called The Deckchairs because our blazers were something else - spectacularly colourful. I wore mine for years after leaving school - very punk 😁
Seems the soft round collar which is what he’s wearing was being superceeded by pointed collars in 1923 and by 1928 the Barrington pointed collar had become the most popular style. So 20’s, or 30’s …. if he was a bit old fashioned, seems to be a probable time scale for the photo.
My moneys on the Kentville second to last in bottom row
if we're playing 'guess the date' .. i'm going for 1937 (and Bernard isn't keeping up with the fashion .. but then he wouldn't be would he , poor bugger .. he's probably been feeling shit since about 1925.... I hope i win a hamper of NDT when Helvella eventually discovers the date .
It's probably been helpful .. since we've now established that Helvella must be at least 102 .. he probably needs his bell ringing every 5 seconds to stop him nodding off on a sunday afternoon.
Men with thyroid disease need to be able to feel welcome here , and have their experience validated . Comments like that will simply put them off from posting about their experiences .
The fact that less men get thyroid problems does NOT make it any easier for them to deal with when they do.
if we turn you comment around, say you had a disease that more men got than women, and you felt alone and unheard... then imagine finding a knowledgeable and supportive community that was inevitably mostly used by men .. would reading a comment from a man saying "for some reason men seem to have a harder time with this disease than women " make you feel welcome, and listened to .. or would you think it was sexist ?
Relax, I understand men have this disease and also suffer with improper care but its just seems to me that more women come here looking for answers then men thats all I meant.
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