This is more of a thought. Is it really true that women are more likely to have thyroid diease than men? Or have I misunderstood and that's not the accepted fact.
Or is it that women are more likely to be diagnosed through pregnancy testing and having general awareness?
definitely more common in Women than men.
it's a ratio of i think * 4:1 women :men. and yes it's definitely an accepted medical fact . ( *see below , i was wrong , it's 10:1)
Thyroid testing is not a routine part of ante natal or post natal care.
I had a very caring and experienced private midwife , who was a personal friend and lived on the same site as me .. 'thyroid' didn't occur to her either.
I had first symptoms of mild hyper in the first few months after a birth , followed by symptoms of going slowly hypo , but despite visiting GP at the time of the hyper symptoms , i was only referred to counselling , no blood tests ( of any kind) were suggested.
so i wasn't diagnosed hypo until 5 yrs later.
as for greater awareness .... i knew what a thyroid was , had an aunt who had a thyroidectomy due to hyperthyroidism years before i was born , and i knew she took levo ..... but i had no idea this meant i was more likely to have a thyroid problem , and i had no real idea what undiagnosed hyper or hypo symptoms were .. so i had no reason to push for thyroid testing ... i just thought i had gone a bit nuts post partum, and , later had no idea why i was so knackered/ cold .
Edit ... i underestimated .. according to the latest consensus statement from endocrinologists . it's 10:1
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
1 BACKGROUND
Primary hypothyroidism affects approximately 3% of the population, equivalent to about 2 million individuals in the United Kingdom.1 The prevalence increases with age and is 10 times more common in women than in men. Most cases in adults are due to chronic autoimmune disease (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) or as a result of destructive treatment with either radioiodine or surgery for hyperthyroidism, benign nodular disease, or thyroid cancer.2
I had no idea what a thyroid was until I was diagnosed at 55 - probably been hypo since I was 8 - and apparently, neither did any of the doctors I consulted over the years with obviously hypo symptoms. In the end, I was diagnosed by mistake - that is to say my stupid doctor thought he was sending me to a dietician, because I was so horribly fat and obviously ignorant about nutriention (according to him), but she turned out to be an endocrinologist. I didn't know what one of those was, either! So, general awareness wasn't my case, and pretty sure I wasn't ever tested for thyroid after any of my three pregnancies, even when I had raging post-natal depression after the first. I was just told to get over it!
That's very sad that it's not a common test in pregnancy.
I wonder if there's been a study where researchers have tested 1k men and 1k women for hashi and high tsh. I haven't seen anything that has done blind testing.
loads of data in studies referred to in this meta-analysis: academic.oup.com/jcem/artic...
The Incidence and Prevalence of Thyroid Dysfunction in Europe: A Meta-Analysis
Ane Garmendia Madariaga, Silvia Santos Palacios, Francisco Guillén-Grima, Juan C. Galofré
Published: 01 March 2014
"Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction
The mean prevalence of total thyroid dysfunction (category 2) in Europe was 3.82% (95% CI, 3.77%–3.86%). The prevalence of previously known and undiagnosed hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism was 3.05% (95% CI, 3.01%–3.09%) and 0.75% (95% CI, 0.73%–0.77%), respectively (Supplemental Figures 1 and 2). Our results indicate that 85.2% of the thyroid dysfunction was subclinical.
In this group, only 4 of 9 studies assessed subclinical disease. Again, there was a clear female preponderance (6.47% vs 1.23%). In females, the prevalence of hyperthyroidism was 1.37%, whereas in males we found a prevalence of 0.31%. Regarding the prevalence of hypothyroidism, we found 5.1% and 0.92% for females and males, respectively (Table 2). Regarding those studies assessing subclinical disease (19, 28, 32, 37), the prevalence of overt and subclinical hyperthyroidism in women was 0.8% and 3.19%, respectively, whereas in men the prevalence was 0.48% and 1.97%, respectively.
On the other hand, the prevalence of overt and subclinical hypothyroidism in females was 0.48% and 4.61%, respectively, whereas prevalence in males was 0.18% and 2.83%, respectively. See Table 2.
Incidence of thyroid dysfunction
The incidence of total thyroid dysfunction (category 3) in Europe was 259.12 per 100 000 per year (95% CI, 254.4–263.9). Once again, there was a clear female preponderance: 419.72 per 100 000 per year vs 85.36 per 100 000 per year for females and males, respectively.
The incidence rate of hypothyroidism was 226.2 per 100 000 per year (95% CI, 222.3–230.2): 369.96 per 100 000 and 72.48 per 100 000 for females and males, respectively.
The incidence rate of hyperthyroidism was 51.04 per 100 000 per year (95% CI, 49.23–52.88): 82.47 per 100 000 and 16.24 per 100 000 for females and males, respectively. See Table 3. "
Thank you very much 😊
Coming to terms with hypothyroidism 
Hypothyroidism and hair grow 
congenital hypothyroidism & hearing loss much later
Is it different for men ?
Understanding hypothyroidism in men
