Читать книгу The Healthy Thyroid: What you can do to prevent and alleviate thyroid imbalance - Patsy Westcott - Страница 5

Thyroid disease is common and affects women more frequently than men.

Many books and articles on thyroid problems for both the general public and medical profession begin with these or similar words. But this bland statement barely begins to suggest the number of women afflicted by thyroid problems or the impact of thyroid disorders on our lives. In fact, according to a review in the British Medical Journal, taken together, underactive and overactive thyroid conditions represent the most common hormonal problem – and this problem overwhelmingly affects women.

In terms of statistics alone, thyroid problems in women deserve to be taken seriously:

• Four out of five people with thyroid disorders are women.

• One in 10 women will develop a thyroid disorder at some stage in her life.

• Between one and two in 100 women in the UK will develop an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), a condition 10 times more common in women than men.

• Two out of every 25 women – and one in 10 past the menopause – have so-called mild thyroid failure that is considered borderline on blood tests. These ‘subclinical’ problems are linked with nagging ill health, such as fatigue, mood swings and overweight, as well as more serious medical problems such as depression, heart disease and osteoporosis.

• Overactive thyroid conditions (hyperthyroidism) are also common in women, affecting between five in every 1000 to one in 50 – or 10 times more women than men.

• One in every 100 people in the UK will develop an autoimmune thyroid disorder, when the body turns against itself to cause the thyroid to become either underactive or overactive. Autoimmune disorders, including those affecting the thyroid, are estimated to be the third biggest killer after heart disease and cancer.

• Having a personal or family history of autoimmune disorders, such as diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, gives you a 25 per cent greater risk of developing a thyroid disease than someone without such a history.

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis – an autoimmune disorder causing an underactive thyroid – may account for up to one-third of such cases in this country and is five times more common in women than men.

• Graves’ disease – an autoimmune condition causing an overactive thyroid – is 15 times more likely to affect you if you are a woman.

• Goitre (a swollen or enlarged thyroid gland) is four times more common in women than in men.

• Thyroid nodules or lumps are also more common in women – estimated to affect about one in 20 women.

• Thyroid cancer, although rare, is also more likely to develop if you are a woman.