Discussions that mention synthroid

A friend of mine had his thyroid removed (killed off with radioactive iodine.) He had Graves disease. He now takes Synthroid since he doesn't have an active thyroid. He seems to be fine, but he still has to be seen every 6 months so that his thyroid dose is regulated.

I have Hashimoto's disease and take Synthroid to regulate my thyroid, but I only go once a year to have my thyroid levels checked.

Bonnie, you are correct, but the question was posed to why not just remove the thyroid rather then deal with it through meds. My point was that you could do either one, but you're going to have to be monitored every year anyway weather you have the thyroid removed or not.

If you go to this web site ( [url]http://www.4woman.gov/faq/graves.htm[/url] ) you'll find the treatment for Graves disease. One of the treatments is to shrink the thyroid cells with raiodactive iodine. I mentioned Graves disease, because my friend had Graves diseas and had his thyroid destroyed. Other options are to have it surgically removed or do the meds. The final outcome is hyperthyroidism in which case he now needs synthroid, because he has an inactive thyroid.

Hashimoto's disease results in hypothyroidism and you also need synthroid to make up what your thyroid doesn't make.

Sorry for the confusion. Hope that clearifies it.

Quote from nr2go:

...because my friend had Graves diseas and had his thyroid destroyed. Other options are to have it surgically removed or do the meds. The final outcome is hyperthyroidism in which case he now needs synthroid, because he has an inactive thyroid.

The final outcome of destroying the thyroid gland is always hypOthyroidism, not hypERthyroidism.

If removal or radiation took care of the problem than I would be healed and on cloud "9" :angel: . I had a tt because of follicular cancer. I also had hashi's. In Dec. I had radioactive iodine treatment. My meds have been inched up every couple of weeks (synthroid). My TSH is 28 and my free t4 is 1.9. This is far from living the good life. Now I have another 6 weeks to go on my current dose of 125 mcg. So I guess the only solution is to stick it out and suffer along with every one else until they get this straight.

Nancy