can graves disease go away without treatment

[leopardland]

hi   i am 42 years old. I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism approxiamately 20 years ago and treated with propylthiouracil, for i guess about a year maybe less.  tests came back normal and discontinued treatment.  2 years ago felt sick again and was sent for tests showing that thyroid problem was back.  i had severe panic disorder symptoms for years and now one dr says it was probably my thyroid all along,  Anyhow went for uptake test and result was graves disease.  Was told i could do radiation therapy for symptoms ,  i asked what would happen if i didnt and they said i could play it by ear and see how i feel.  Which is what i have been doing.  Anyhow still feel crappy all the time so went for more blood work in nov 07 and the dr now tells me that my thyroid has burnt itself out.  wHAT EXACTLY  does that mean.  He says i'm fine and the level came back normal  and i asked him if all levels should be checked and he says no not if the initial one is fine.  I still have all the same symptoms and am gaining weight.  I'm just wondering is it possible to have graves and now i don't because it burnt itself out .

[yankeeRN]

Are they checking your FT3?  The FT3 is a true indicator of symptoms. My md use to check my total t4 and that just did not correlate to my symptoms and how I felt.  When my total t4 was "in range" and I still felt hyper I came on this site and they were insistent that I tell my md to check my FT3. So my md agreed to check my FT3 and sure enough it was well over the "normal" range--he then agreed to up my PTU and I started to get relief. For me it has been up and down--I have insisted on my labs being checked every 3 months and sooner if I don't feel well. Before checking every 3 months my md said we could go 6 months----I started to feel awful and was headed hypo--not pretty--it took me a few months before I felt human again. I have battled this for 4 years and have found I really need to listen to my body and to speak up when I don't feel right--every time I have and had my labs checked it was found that my labs were off--every single time. Make sure your md listens to you. Learn as much as you can about your thyroid and symptoms of hypo and hyperthyroid. You will feel better.  I want to give you hope because I know when I didn't feel well I needed hope--it was that hope of feeling better that kept me going.  Keep your chin up and listen to your body.

[Kecoogle]

If anyone comes up with a wonderful answer this site is fantastic for that reason if one gets help maybe it can help someone else even if the symptoms aren't identical. It seems  with most of us all the symptoms besides eyes ,goiter are extremely similar but it changes your entire life. You would hope that it stays in the remission and you could feel better n because I used to have 0. 0 levels and felt horrible I have levels they say are within normal range:  still have palpitations ,night sweats, panic attacks, exhausted all the time. I feel really bad for the young ones that are going through this as my symptoms didn't get crazy until they started pulling me on and off lots of different meds including my methimazole I have felt horrible since with all the med changes

[stella5349]

Graves is an auto immune disease which likely in your case your TPO antibodies are attacking your thyroid.  Eventually if this is the case - your thyroid will stop working or will not produce well enough without medication.

It would be interesting if you could post your actual thyroid blood panels here to see the ranges you are at and were at.

Graves never goes away as stated . It only falls in and out of remission.  Without seeing your TSH tests I would not be able to say you are normal or not. but if you are in the reference ranges of .3-3.0 on your TSH level - you could be considered as normal. Symptomatically- you feel bad - so your physician should be helping you feel better.

[skymax2000]

I would get copies of your tests and get a second opinion. My doc said burn out could mean going hypothyroid. He also said 10% of Graves patients go into remission.

[cbread]

Yes, Graves disease can burn itself out, so if you are testing within the normal range without medication you should be ok. But you should keep monitoring your symptoms and get blood tests if you feel out of whack.