Thyroid symptoms

Thyroid gland is a small endocrine organ situated at front and the sides of the neck. It consists of right and left lobes connected by a narrow segment. Endocrine means it produces biologically active substances (hormones) to circulate with the blood and regulate the body processes.

Thyroid gland produces two very important hormones: thyroxine (T4) and 3 iodothyronine (T3). In any age normal level of thyroid gland hormones is necessary for proper functioning of the human body. They influence the body metabolism, tissues growth and development of sexual maturity, menstrual function and ovulation; they stimulate proteine synthesis etc.

The secretion of T4 and T3 is regulated by thyreotropin (TTH), the hormone secreted by hypophyse. The higher level of T3 and T4 in the blood, the lower level of TTH and vice versa by negative feedback. The normal level of TTH in the blood in most cases means that the function of the thyroid gland is normal.

Hypothyroidism occurs in 19 of 1000 women and 1 of 1000 men. Hypothyroidism is not aparent at the beginning and develops gradually, usually during years or even decades. The hypothyroidism symptoms are initially slight and are often taken as the result of stress, pregnancy etc. Hypothyroidism had been fatal diagnosis before medical preparations of thyroid hormones has become available.

If you suffer from general malaise, such as weakness, fatigue, decreased work capacity, memory deterioration, weight gain, edemas, dry skin, brittle fingernails and hair it is very probably you have your thyroid gland function decreased. Hypothyroidism been identified as a cause for infertility, miscarriage, and pregnancy complications.

Hypothyroidism may include the next hypothyroidism symptoms:

• sluggishness and fatigue, especially in the morning;
• head ache, joints and muscle pain, numbness in fingers and toes;
• depression;
• sleep disorders;
• memory and thinking skills decline;
• libido and sexual potency decline;
• menstrual disorders, infertility;
• frequent infections;
• constipation;
• body weight gain;
• cold fingers and toes, body temperature lowering;
• edemas and dry skin of face and limbs;
• brittle hair and nails;
• disorders of vision and hearing, ringing in ears;
• hoarse voice, snoring;
• heart rate decreasing and heart disorders;
• blood pressure fluctuations, vascular dystonia;
• anemia;
• high cholesterol in the blood;

In 99% cases pathology of the thyroid gland is the reason of hypothyroidisms (inborn hypothyroidism, thyroid gland hypoplasia, autoimmune thyroiditis, lack of iodine, state after treatment of hyperthyroidism or thyroid gland surgery, thyroid gland tumors) and in 1% cases pathology of hypophyse or hypothalamus is the reason.

Hyperthyroidism (thyrotoxicosis) is the state of the body with excessive production of thyroid hormones. 70-80% of the patients are women. Thyrotoxicosis is an opposite state to hypothyroidism: when the level of thyroid hormones in the body is decreased, than all the processes are slowed down. In the state of thyrotoxicosis all methabolic processes are intensified. If you become irritative, have started to lose your weight and sweat heavily, get your heart rate and body temperature increased – it may be due to increased function of thyroid gland. Hyperthyroidism also leads to menstrual cycle disorders and infertility.

Thyrotoxicosis is manifested by the next thyroid symptoms:

• irritability, sleep disorders, aggressive behaviour, fatigue, weakness.
• quick and often changed mood (euphoria, depression), crying frequently.
• decreasing libido and sexual potency.
• menstrual cycle disorders.
• increased heart rate, heart cycle disorders.
• increased thirst, excessive urination, diarrhea.
• body weight loss.
• osteoporosis, bones breaks.
• feeling of being hot, excessive sweating;
• tremor;
• brittle hair, lose of the hair;
• edema around the eyes, eyeballs protruding;
• goiter (visible increase of the thyroid gland).

The most frequent reason of thyrotoxicosis (up to 80% of the patients) is diffuse toxic goiter or Graves´ disease. In 15% of cases the reason is multinodular goiter that is more often in medium aged and senior patients. In 15% of the cases thyrotoxicosis can be caused by a single hyperfunctional nodule (toxic thyroid adenoma) that is more frequently observed in middle and senior age. Other possible reasons are: increased iodine consumption, postpartum thyroiditis, thyroid hormones overdose in hypothyreosis and goiter tratment, increased production of thyreotropin by hypophyse to constantly stimulate the thyroid gland.

Thyroid gland nodules (nodular goiter) are tumors of thyroid gland that differ from the rest thyroid gland tissue by their structure and composition. They can be nonmalignant or malignant. The main danger of nonmalignant nodules is possibility to turn into malignant ones.

Reasons of thyroid gland nodules formation:

• lack of iodine;
• exposure of the thyroid gland to toxic substances, such as paints, dissolvents, benzenes, lead etc.;
• nonmalignant and malignant growth;
• genetic buden;
• toxic adenoma.

At the early stage the disease may be not apparent. The symptoms are diverse that makes toxic goiter or Graves´ disease is characterized by increased thyroid hormones production. The thyroid gland grows in size due to autoimmune processes. Autoimmune diseases are caused by the immune system disorders when the body produces substances that damage own cells. In the case of diffuse toxic goiter the lymphocytes produce protein that stimulates the thyroid gland.

Diagnostics of diffuse toxic goiter are difficult. At the beginning of the disease patient can suffer from sleep disorders, emotional instability, sweating heavily, heart rate disorders, palpitation, fingers tremor. More specific thyroid symptoms are quick weight loss when eating normally and being constantly hot even in cold weather.

With the time tremor of the fingers becomes more apparent. Tremor of other body parts can be also observed. The patients are hyper active and have watery skin. All the skin become dark-complected, especially the skin around the eyes. The thyroid gland is enlarged and visible. When palpated it feels solid and not painful.

Specific Graves´ disease symptom is changing eyes. The eyes are shining, they are widely opened with reduced blinking frequency. The eyeballs are enlarged and protruded. The eyelids may be dropsical. Due to decreased blood supply to the eyeballs infections may occur leading to eyes inflamations. It may end up in blindness.

The diseases connected with the thyroid gland structural disorders are more frequent than those connected with the function disorders. They are the thyroid gland enlargement, nodes and cysts formation. The best method of the thyroid gland structural disorders is ultrasonic diagnostics. Palpation and visual diagnostic are less informative.

If ultrasoud diagnostics reveals the volume of thyroid gland more than 18 ml in women and more than 25 ml in men is may be considered as diffuse enlargement of the thyroid gland or diffuse goiter. If there are nodules in the thyroid gland than it is considered as node goiter. Nodules may be present in normal-sized thyroid gland.

There are different nodules as per their reasons, cellular structure, secretion ability and it is important for prognosis and treatment of the illness. The most important thing here is the cellular structure of the nodules: whether they are malignant or not. There is only one method providing 90-95% reliability: fine needle puncture biopsy of the nodes. A surgeon does it under ultrasound control. Than the fragment of the tissue is taken from the hollow puncture needle and investigated with microscope by a cytologist.

If the malignancy is revealed than an oncologist plans further treatment. In most cases it is surgical. No other treatment of cancer gives as positive prognosis as surgery does.

Unfortunately one can confirm but cannot reject malignancy diagnosis. The 100% rejection of malignancy can be done after the surgery when investigating the tissue taken off. That´s why a node is always suspicious and should be checked once a year with ultrasonic investigation that should be analyzed by experienced endocrinologist.

Besides, the nodes may produce excessive hormones as well as not produce at all. The first case leads to hyperthyreosis, the second one – to hypothyreosis. In most cases nodes do not influence the thyroid gland function and hormones T3, T4 and TTH are in norm.

The thyroid gland needs iodine for the hormones production. We usually consume iodine with the food. But there is often lack of iodine in our food. In this case endemic goiter can occur: compensatory enlargement of the thyroid gland. Daily need in iodine is 150 micrograms. Compensatory enlagement of the thyroid gland develops when daily iodine intake is less than 100 micrograms for a long time. If the compensatory enlargement does not help to extract more iodine from the food than hypothyroidism occurs. In reply to decreased thyroid gland hormones in the blood TTH secretion gets increased leading to further enlargement of the thyroid gland and nodes formation.