BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Thyroid Health new article - basics in thyroid treatments

I think you should have started the article, This is the way it would be in an ideal world.

When it comes to hyperthyroidism, I've heard that up to 80% of endos recommend RAI as the first treatment, downplaying the other options. Considering how much hyperT messes up the patient's head (sleep deprivation, anxiety, etc.) it's hard to wrap one's head around the fact that drs. are recommending the most draconian, with the most side effects, treatment so much.

Anti thyroid drugs (ATDs) SHOULD be offered first. If administered properly they would probably have a much higher remission rate, and a much lower reaction rate (high liver, low WBC; often due to overdosing) than they do.

I too see articles saying more Dr.s that treat Graves' and hyperthyroidism are useing RAI as the first line of treatment. Some of them start with ATDs as the first phase of going into RAI and not really counting on or monitoring for improvement from the ATDs alone. They also try to destroy just enough of the thyroid to halt overproduction of hormone rather than totally detroying the gland but about 10 t0 15 percent of RAI patients, need it readministered because the first round doesn't fix the hyperthyroidism.
Hopefully, treating Dr.s evaluate the severity of symptoms in determining which treatment to do a trial of. Many hyperthyroid cases are caught before severe symptoms have begun and in these cases ATDs can be all the patient needs.

The Mayo Clinic says this:
"Antithyroid drugs and radioiodine are effective treatments for Graves' disease. When these approaches fail to resolve the problem, the thyroid gland may be surgically removed."

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