Do you unknowingly have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis?

Symptoms of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Introduction

The types and severity of symptoms of Hashimoto's disease vary between individuals. Many people have no symptoms at all. If Hasimoto's disease leads to hypothyroidism, symptoms of an underactive thyroid may develop. At the onset of hypothyroidism, symptoms can be vague and develop slowly. They may not include weakness, weight gain, cold sensitivity, cold hands and feet, fatigue, dry skin, brittle nails, and thinning, brittle hair. Other early symptoms include muscle achiness, joint pain, and heavy menstrual periods.

If undiagnosed and untreated, later symptoms of hypothyroidism can include confusion, thick skin, swelling of the arms or legs, slowing of speech, and depression.

Untreated Hashimoto's disease that results in hypothyroidism may lead to serious complications, such as heart disease, infertility, miscarriage, osteoporosis, birth defects, and heart failure.

Rarely, a critical complication of hypothyroidism called myxedema coma can occur. This is the most extreme form of hypothyroidism, and it is life threatening. Symptoms of myxedema coma include decreased respirations, hypotension, hypoglycemia, unresponsiveness, and shock.

Women's Health Fact Sheet

What are the symptoms of Hashimoto's disease?

Many people with Hashimoto’s disease have no symptoms for years. An enlarged thyroid, called a goiter, is often the first sign of disease. The goiter may cause the front of the neck to look swollen. You or your doctor may notice the goiter. If large, it may cause a feeling of fullness in the throat or make it hard to swallow. It rarely causes pain.

Many people with Hashimoto’s disease develop an underactive thyroid. They may have mild or no symptoms at first. But symptoms tend to worsen over time. Symptoms of an underactive thyroid include:

• Fatigue
• Weight gain
• Pale, puffy face
• Feeling cold
• Joint and muscle pain
• Constipation
• Dry, thinning hair
• Heavy menstrual flow or irregular periods
• Depression
• A slowed heart rate
• Problems getting pregnant

Who gets Hashimoto's disease?

Hashimoto’s disease is about 7 times more common in women than in men. It can occur in teens and young women, but more commonly shows up in middle age. People who get Hashimoto’s disease often have family members who have thyroid or other autoimmune diseases. People who get Hashimoto’s disease sometimes have other autoimmune diseases, such as:

• Vitiligo (vit-ihl-EYE-goh) — a disease that destroys the cells that give your skin its color
• Rheumatoid arthritis  — a disease that affects the lining of the joints throughout the body
• Addison’s disease — a disease that affects the adrenal glands, which make hormones that help your body respond to stress and regulate your blood pressure and water and salt balance
• Type 1 diabetes — a disease that causes blood sugar levels to be too high
• Graves’ disease — a disease that causes the thyroid to make too much thyroid hormone
• Pernicious (pur-NISH-uhss) anemia — a disease that keeps your body from absorbing vitamin B12 and making enough healthy red blood cells
• Lupus — a disease that can damage many parts of the body, such as the joints, skin, blood vessels, and other organs

What causes Hashimoto's disease?

Many factors are thought to play a role in getting Hashimoto’s disease. These include:

• Genes. Some people are prone to Hashimoto’s disease because of their genes. Researchers are working to find the gene or genes involved.
• Gender. Sex hormones also might play a role. This may help to explain why Hashimoto’s disease affects more women than men.
• Pregnancy. Pregnancy affects the thyroid. Some women have thyroid problems after having a baby, which usually go away. But about 20 percent of these women develop Hashimoto’s disease in later years. This suggests that pregnancy might trigger thyroid disease in some women.
• Too much iodine and some drugs may trigger the onset of thyroid disease in people prone to getting it.
• Radiation exposure has been shown to bring on autoimmune thyroid disease. This includes radiation from the atomic bomb in Japan, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, and radiation treatment of Hodgkin’s disease (a type of blood cancer).

How do I find out if I have Hashimoto's disease?

If you have symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease, your doctor will do an exam and order one or more tests. Sometimes, routine screening of thyroid function reveals a mildly underactive thyroid in a person with no symptoms. Tests used to find out if you have Hashimoto’s disease include:

• Thyroid function tests.  A blood test is sent to a lab to see if your body has the right amount of TSH and thyroid hormone (T4). An above normal level of TSH is a sign of an underactive thyroid. When the thyroid begins to fail, the pituitary makes more TSH so as to trigger the thyroid to make more thyroid hormone. For a while, the thyroid can keep up, and the blood test will show slightly higher TSH levels with normal T4 levels. This is called subclinical hypothyroidism. But over time, the damaged thyroid cannot keep up, and T4 levels will drop below normal while TSH levels are high.  
• Antibody test. A blood sample is sent to a lab to look for antibodies that suggest Hashimoto’s disease. Most people with Hashimoto’s disease will have specific antibodies that people with other causes of an underactive thyroid do not have. Some people have the antibodies seen with Hashimoto’s disease, but have normal thyroid function. Having only the antibodies does not cause any symptoms.

Hashimoto’s disease can be harder to diagnose during pregnancy. For one, Hashimoto’s disease has many of the same symptoms as normal pregnancy, such as fatigue and weight gain. Yet untreated underactive thyroid during pregnancy may affect the baby’s growth and brain development. So make sure to tell your doctor if you have symptoms of thyroid problems.

How is Hashimoto's disease treated?

Hashimoto’s disease responds well to treatment. It is treated with a single daily tablet of levothyroxine (lee-voh-thye-ROKS-een). This is a manmade form of T4 thyroid hormone. It also is called thyroid replacement therapy because it restores back to normal the T4 that the damaged thyroid can no longer make. It almost always needs to be taken for the rest of a person’s life and in the same manner each day.
Thyroid replacement medication comes in different amounts. The exact dose depends on:

• Age
• Weight
• Severity of the underactive thyroid, if present
• Other health problems
• Use of other medicines that can interact with levothyroxine

When you start treatment, you will need a follow-up TSH test so your doctor can fine-tune your dose. Thyroid hormone acts very slowly in the body, so it can take several months after the start of treatment for symptoms to go away and goiter to shrink. If the dose is too strong, thyroid hormone levels will become too high. This is called hyperthyroidism. Too much thyroid hormone can cause heart problems and bone loss. So finding the right dose is important.

Once the TSH level is normal, your doctor will need to see you less often. Most people have a thyroid checkup and TSH test once a year. Usually, the same treatment dose works for a long time and often does not need to be adjusted until a person’s 70s or 80s. Yet, the dose may need to be changed in some cases, such as with pregnancy, heart disease, or if using menopausal hormone therapy.

Whether to treat a mildly underactive thyroid without symptoms is an area of debate. Hashimoto’s disease is the cause in most cases. Many doctors feel that treatment can help these patients. Treatment will keep symptoms from starting. Also, some studies have shown that a mildly underactive thyroid can increase the risk of other health problems, including heart disease. We don’t know yet if treating a mildly underactive thyroid will lower these risks. But some studies have shown thyroid hormone treatment might protect against heart disease. If a screening test reveals you have a mildly underactive thyroid without symptoms, talk to your doctor about your options.

What would happen if Hashimoto's disease is not treated?

Without treatment, Hashimoto’s disease may progress and symptoms of an underactive thyroid can get worse. An untreated underactive thyroid can cause further problems, including:

• Infertility
• Miscarriage
• Giving birth to a baby with birth defects
• High cholesterol

Severe underactive thyroid called myxedema (mik-suh-DEE-muh) can very rarely lead to:

• Heart failure
• Seizures
• Coma
• Death

More information on Hashimoto's disease

For more information about Hashimoto's disease, call womenshealth.gov at 800-994-9662 (TDD: 888-220-5446) or contact the following organizations:

• American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc.
  Phone: 586-776-3900; Toll-Free: 800-598-4668 (for literature requests)
• American Thyroid Association
  Phone: 800-THYROID (849-7643)
• National Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases Information Service, NIDDK, NIH, DHHS
  Phone: 888-828-0904
• New York Thyroid Center
  Phone: 800-543-2782; 212-305-0442
• The Hormone Foundation
  Phone: 800-HORMONE (467-6663)

I see now that my Mom, Myself, and my Daughter have inherited this problem from our ancestors. I believe my son has also, because he needed thyroid medication while very young and even had a small goiter for years before I realized what was going on.  And thankfully, we now we know more about it. 
Please go to the websites linked above and in the titles and text to read more about this. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope this information has been of some help to you. As always, if you would like to add a thought, question, give suggestions for another topic, or make a general suggestion, please post a comment below. Also, please follow / subscribe to this blog.  Thank you!