Thyroid Disease and the Gender Pay Gap

[asiatic]

I have received the following from Prof. Catia Montagna to pass on :-

I wanted to signal to you that we have now issued a survey on the wellbeing and labour market implications of thyroid disease that we would like to form the basis for a report to be issued on World Thyroid Day on 25 May. You will probably receive the link through your support network, but I thought to send it to you directly. I would be grateful if you did it (also feel free to circulate it to people you might know). It is totally anonymous and would only  take about 10 minutes to complete. You can access it here: forms.gle/ZjN8Cg13K2VMjojKA

[asiatic]

Have now completed the survey. Being retired I am not the correct demographic. Found many questions ambiguous eg. “ did you feel empowered to have an input on decisions “ Answer…..1st. few years NO……Recently YES ( mainly thanks to this forum )

Although I think exploring thyroid and gender pay gap justified, I suspect the questionnaire too simplistic to give answers to a very complex subject. I don’t feel qualified to enter into a dialogue with the Prof. Who has Hashimotos but think many on this forum could give her a few helpful pointers that could help her with any future research

[tattybogle in reply to asiatic]

i had to use quite a few of the 'other' boxes to type a more accurate description... like you say they don't have a box for :

"semi retired self employed still hobbled by fluctuating crashes if i overdo it thus virtually unemployable "

And similarly .. i've been diagnosed treated since 2003, so rather tricky to know which period of my life since then to give the answers for.

[tattybogle]

Completed it (quick and easy to do)

Thanks for posting the link asiatic

[SlowDragon Administrator]

pretty useless questions

Far too simplistic

No option at all to say …..only by adding T3/improving vitamin levels/dietary changes was return to normality possible

On by research and self empowerment do many thyroid patients get better

[asiatic]

I think exploring the gender pay gap in relation to Thyroid Disease an interesting and valid line of enquiry. However, I agree with SlowDragon that the questionnaire is too simplistic to give meaningful results. I thought perhaps people on this forum with their wealth of knowledge might be able to contact Prof. Montana with their thoughts with a view to redirecting any future research. I suspect with thyroid disease women are treated differently from men in many subtle ways and I am not aware of any research having investigated this.

[tattybogle in reply to asiatic]

I have emailed them too . Tried to get the issues across about GP lack of experience of the wide variety of symptoms , over simplistic thyroid training , over reliance on bloods without reference to how the patient actually is etc ... and how this lack of knowledge can repeatedly mess up employment later on, after diagnosis and treatment has brought initial improvement.

[arTistapple]

Since so many of us have long since had to give up work due to undiagnosed thyroid issues, this survey is far from being immediately useful. A stark question about when we had to give up work due to undiagnosed thyroid issues would have been more useful. I was lucky my husband earned enough for the two of us to survive. However I lost my self esteem as well as my income, with no answer to my problem. If we’ll bring and the labour market was the point of the survey, it missed it by a mile. Hopefully it is on the right road with future surveys more accurate.

[asiatic in reply to arTistapple]

Suggest you drop an email to the Profs. I am in the middle of writing one. If enough of us explain our reality of living with a thyroid disease perhaps it will lead to more useful research in the future.

[arTistapple in reply to asiatic]

Is there an email address and I can’t see it?

[asiatic in reply to arTistapple]

[e-mail]

[arTistapple in reply to asiatic]

Thank you!