Dear Diana, I don't feel that I can give you any more specific advice on the basis of electronic exchanges. If you are concerned and you don't feel right you have a valid reason to bring it to your attention of your GP. If he/she is unable to address your concerns adequately you have a valid reason ...

Dear Lizzy, I agree that it is not difficult to diagnose hypothyroidism, if one listens to the symptoms, examines the patient and does the appropriate blood tests. To be fair to your docs in the UK, it may well be that you developed hypothyroidism after you had finished with them. I would be surpris...

It is good practice whenever possible to keep exposure to radiation to the minimum possible. Up to 20,000MBq is reasonably safe, but the proper way of approaching this is to consider the balance between benefits and risks. If the thyroid cancer is presently a real threat to life, then clearly the ba...

The teenage years are not easy for the youngsters or for parents (I speak from experience) and there are numerous reasons that could be driving these symptoms. Young people also hate taking tablets and that is a very common problems, especially with thyroxine when one can feel no immediate benefit. ...

It is difficult to predict which way it is going to go. Some patients remain in a stable situation for years, others become overactive and some may become underactive. If you have no symptoms and no heart problems and if you are under 60 and have no osteoporosis, it is reasonable to just keep an eye.

Stimulatory antibodies to the TSH receptor drive the thyroid overactivity in Garves' disease. The same antibodies are usually raised in Graves ophthalmopathy and TSH receptors have been found in the tissues behind the eyes of patients with ophthalmopathy. It is suspected, though not yet proven, that...

The British Thyroid Association and American Thyroid Association guidelines are probably the most authoritative guidelines around. They both recommend US after radioiodine ablation. The extent of monitoring and frequency of monitoring afterwards, depends on the risk classification. Patients with a l...

Dear Mrs Brass T3 is less good at suppressing the serum TSH than T4, but it is possible to achieve TSH suppression, with a T3/T4 combination. I have never been convinced that the combination treatment is better than T4 alone. I doubt that your symptoms will improve with T3, but it is sensible to dis...

There are some products I believe that are available on the internet, which are marketed as slow T3. About 5 years ago I made contact with one of the pharmacies in Canada who made and sold such a product. I was deeply disappointed for two reasons. 1. It seemed that all they did was to mix T3 with me...

Dear Pete, It seems to me that your wife was found to be hypothyroid, increments of levothyroxine were helpful but of limited duration until the next increment. She was then found to be deficient in B12 and iron. If I have got this right, then I will make a couple of comments. In retrospect the tran...