Top Videos

Symptoms of a Thyroid Problem

  • Sudden weight gain: One of the common indicator of hypothyroidism is the weight gain or unable to cut down on the excess weight. Even when you are eating as per normal and exercising on timely basis but still not able to lose weight then you have your thyroid working slow. On the other hand, a sudden loss of weight can indicate hyperthyroidism.
  • Sudden changes in the mood: The individual would face certain kind of mood changes or mood swings, anxiety attacks, depression in cases of an underactive thyroid. Feeling very much depressed without much reason or sadness is one of the main symptom of hypothyroidism. The reason is because it has been thought that production of too little of the thyroid hormone can also have impact on the feel good hormone known as serotonin present in the brain. Wherein the underactive thyroid causing the other body systems to go low it would not be surprising enough that the mood may tend to sink anytime. Also feelings of anxiety are all associated with hyperthyroidism wherein the thyroid gland tends to make too much of thyroid hormone. There would be a feeling that the individual is just not able to relax since the thyroid gland becomes too hyper.
  • Hormonal imbalance: Women suffering from thyroid issues would experience symptoms such as irregularity in periods, low drive for sex, or infertility. These symptoms can appear in both hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. There would be either little or no desire at all in having sex and it can turn out to be one of the side effect of the thyroid medical condition. Too less of the thyroid hormone is known to act as a contributor for low libido in the individual but the collective impact of all the other symptoms of hypothyroidism such as sudden gain in weight, low levels of energy, pain or aches in the body can also play a role.
  • Pain in the muscles and joints: For those who suffer from tendonitis, pain in the muscle, carpal tunnel syndrome or pain in the joints should immediately check with the doctor for getting diagnosed for the thyroid condition.
  • Hands and feet feeling cold: One of the other signal of thyroid condition can be feeling extremely cold mostly on the hands and the feet whereas others do not feel the same.
  • Difficulty in sleeping: There can be severe case of sleep disturbances mostly during the night time for those suffering from thyroid conditions.
  • Issues with the mind: If an individual has either underactive or overactive thyroid then they will most probably start to develop loss of memory, unable to concentrate or brain fog issues.
  • Skin turning dry: Few of the other symptoms faced by individuals suffering from thyroid issues are brittle nails, skin turning dry or cracking and excessive loss of hair. There is changes in the texture as well as appearance of the skin which is mostly due to the reduction in the metabolism caused by underactive hormone which in turn leads to reduction in sweating. Skin which does not have enough of moisture can turn dry and become flaky as well. Similarly, nails would also turn out to be brittle and develop ridges.
  • Hoarseness in the voice: Due to thyroiditis the individual may also experience swelling in their neck along with snoring voice or a low pitched voice. One of the way to check is to have a good look at the neck and see if you can find out any signs of thyroid swelling.
  • General weakness in the body: Most of the thyroid disorders tend to make the individual feel very much tired or weak even when they have rested for several hours. Many a times the issues of feeling extremely tired and also having no energy left are all issues associated with one of the thyroid condition called as hypothyroidism. This condition occurs due to too little of the thyroid hormone present in the body. When you are still feeling tired after having a full night of sleep then that itself is a wakeup call that the thyroid is underactive and is not working as it should normally do.

It is also important to remember that none of these signs or symptoms would be absolutely specific to the thyroid medical condition since any of these conditions can be caused due to a varied number of medical conditions as well as normal states. The doctor would be able to diagnose by carrying out certain tests and then evaluate the functioning of the thyroid gland if there are any kind of troubling symptoms.