Hypothyroidism and Graves Disease

[segidream]

My mother was diagnosed in her early 40s with graves disease and her thyroid was removed, around the same time she was diagnosed with stage 3-4 colon cancer. I'm aware there are connections between autoimmune diseases and thyroid and intestinal diseases/conditions. As I'm getting older I'm noticing I'm following in the same physiological footsteps my mother did before she was diagnosed. In my teenage years I could eat anything and never gain a pound, I appeared anorexic up to age 21. My periods were light and would disappear for months, and it took almost 2 years to conceive. After I had my children, I had a tubal ligation, I've never been able to lose the weight and my periods were steady & regular. Over the past year my hair has thinned, my voice is scratchy I constantly have to clear my throat. I'm tired ALL day no energy but when I try to sleep at night... I have the hardest time falling asleep. Melatonin has become a good friend of mine. Now my periods are becoming so heavy and painful it's almost unmanageable, accidents are common. I have 2 heavy days approximately 30ml every 2hrs, and it lasts for 7-8 days. I'm guesstimating about 250-300ml every month. I do plan on having thyroid blood tests done but I'm curious if a connection to graves disease and my possible hypothyroid are a probability and if so, does this often get overlooked and undiagnosed? Everything I look at online says graves disease is hereditary but presents with hyperthyroid symptoms.... so it does make me question what I'm experiencing.

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

Yes - autoimmune thyroid disease is hereditary and some family members have hyper/graves while others can have hypo/hashimotos.  

[madthyrois78]

Im not saying u have a thyroid disorder but there are more then just Graves. Have you researched Hashitmoto?  Hashi can be tricky to diagnose because they dont always just show up in just TSH test that most docs only do. Also, Hashi can go back and forth from hypo to hyper. Please research all thyroid disorders.