Researchers at Newcastle University recently conducted an online survey to try and understand how widespread fatigue is in people with hypothyroidism, and how severe their symptoms are. The principal investigator, Prof Simon Pearce, explains that 1200 people responded to the survey and 90% of those had some degree of fatigue.
However, it could be that not everyone engaged in the survey e.g. those that feel fine may not have felt it necessary to respond and only those who feel worse responded, so the actual percentage of people overall with fatigue may be less.
The survey did show that fatigue severity was not linked to newly diagnosed people and that older respondents had slightly less fatigue.
Prof Pearce mentioned that randomised, blinded trials where people have either changed their dosage of levothyroxine or added T3 show that there was no improvement for most people although lifestyle factors can be helpful – not easy if you have fatigue.
The good news is that there is another study coming up that will look at whether inflammation of the thyroid could be contributing to fatigue in patients with Hashimoto’s.
Thyroid UK believes there should be more studies looking at exactly how Hashimoto’s affects people instead of just thinking that it only causes hypothyroidism and that taking levothyroxine will make things better.
You can read the British Thyroid Foundation report here:
American Thyroid Association "Foggy Brain" Survey 
People's Experience with Thyroid Disease Survey
thyroid function test results antibodies not tested 
Thyroid Federation International. Are you awareOf World Thyroid Awareness day last May?......
