Thyroid Disease

What is thyroid disease?

Thyroid disease is a group of diseases that occur within the thyroid gland in the middle of your neck. This small gland produces, stores, and releases thyroid hormones that regulate your metabolism.

Thyroid disease can be fairly mild, extremely serious, or somewhere in between. Most thyroid diseases involve overproduction or underproduction of thyroid hormones. Although thyroid disease occurs in both sexes, women are more vulnerable.

What types of thyroid diseases are there?

Forms of thyroid disease include:

• Thyroid cancer: malignant mass in your thyroid
• Thyroid nodules: lumps in your thyroid, typically benign
• Hyperthyroidism: too much thyroid hormone
• Hypothyroidism: too little thyroid hormone
  
  

Some conditions that lead to hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism are autoimmune in nature. Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disorder that leads to hyperthyroidism. Another immune disease affecting the thyroid is Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which leads to hypothyroidism.

Parathyroid disease, despite its name, is a separate disease. It occurs when the parathyroid glands in the back of your thyroid gland make too much or too little parathyroid hormone.

What are the symptoms of thyroid disease?

Thyroid disease doesn’t always cause symptoms, but that could change as the disease progresses.

With hyperthyroidism, you may experience nervousness, insomnia, weight loss, muscle tremors, an enlarged thyroid, erratic menstruation, and heat sensitivity.

Hypothyroidism symptoms are generally the opposite of those associated with hyperthyroidism and may include weight gain, chronic fatigue, cold intolerance, and heavy menstrual periods.

Thyroid cancer is usually asymptomatic until it’s advanced. At that point, you may experience neck pain, a noticeable lump in your neck, and difficulty swallowing.

Thyroid nodules generally don’t cause symptoms. But, especially large ones might cause swallowing or breathing issues. You might feel a big bump in your neck.

If you have symptoms associated with thyroid disease, schedule an expert assessment with Dr. Fishman promptly. Thyroid disease is manageable, but treatment is easier the earlier it’s diagnosed.

How is thyroid disease treated?

Dr. Fishman uses a personalized protocol for thyroid disease, which means she considers your whole-body health when treating you. If you have a hormone imbalance, treatment often involves hormone replacement or medications to curb hormone overproduction.

Radioactive iodine may be another option because it targets the problem cells to stop hormone overproduction. If you don’t respond to nonsurgical treatments, she might recommend thyroid surgery to remove a nodule, part of the thyroid, or the entire thyroid gland.

To receive care from a physician who understands the intricacies of thyroid disease, call the office of Sarah Fishman MD PhD PC or book your appointment online today.