Читать книгу The Healthy Thyroid: What you can do to prevent and alleviate thyroid imbalance - Patsy Westcott - Страница 12

The thyroid gland is involved in virtually every bodily process, including those of the reproductive system, and thyroid disease is linked to a number of specifically female problems (see Table 3.1).

Table 3.1 Links between thyroid disorders and the reproductive system

The first clue that something may be wrong with the thyroid gland is often when a woman consults the doctor on a ‘woman’s problem’, such as menstrual irregularities, difficulty in getting pregnant, miscarriage, postnatal depression or menopausal symptoms. It is also increasingly recognized that thyroid problems may be confused with or aggravate the symptoms of women’s problems such as PMS and the menopause.

With so many women’s problems being linked to thyroid disease and, conversely, so many thyroid problems being associated with the reproductive cycle, could it be that the female hormones play a part in susceptibility to thyroid disease? The answer is most likely yes. Research suggests that the two main female sex hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, moderate the activity of the immune system – hence the preponderance of thyroid disease in women.

The involvement of hormones and the immune system could also explain why the thyroid may misbehave for the first time during pregnancy and after birth. It also provides a reason for why so many women develop debilitating postpartum thyroiditis (PPT), which is often confused with postnatal depression.

One of the most striking developments since the first edition of this book has been the increasing awareness that the brain and nervous system, the immune system and endocrine (hormonal) system, all previously thought to be completely separate systems, do not work in isolation. This has led to the development of new fields of study such as psychoneuroendocrinology and psychoneuroimmunology, which are dedicated to exploring the body-mind connection and the way in which each ‘talks’ to the other.