After surgery, your doctor will continue to monitor your thyroid hormone levels and adjust the dose of your thyroid medication if necessary. Surgery to remove some or most of the thyroid gland is used less often to treat hyperthyroidism. Sometimes doctors use surgery to treat people with a large goiter or pregnant women who cannot use antithyroid drugs. Antithyroid drugs, such as methimazole, reduce the production of thyroid hormones.

These hormones are particularly important to your baby’s brain and nervous system. Having thyroid hormone levels slightly higher than normal is fine, but if your level Hashimoto Thyroid Disease increases dramatically, your healthcare provider may need to prepare a treatment plan. High levels of thyroid hormones can affect not only you but also your baby.

However, this condition is easier to treat than hyperthyroidism. The term hyperthyroidism refers to any condition in which too much thyroid hormone is produced in the body. Another term you can hear for this problem is thyrotoxicosis, which refers to high levels of thyroid hormone in the bloodstream, regardless of its source. Normal hormonal changes during pregnancy cause thyroid hormone levels to rise. The thyroid can also grow slightly in healthy women during pregnancy, but not enough to feel.

If you are undergoing surgery, your doctor will ask you to take antithyroid medications before surgery to make your thyroid hormone levels as normal as possible. The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped endocrine gland that normally occurs in the lower part of the neck. The task of the thyroid gland is to make thyroid hormones, which are excreted in the blood and then carried to every tissue in the body. Thyroid hormone helps the body use energy, stay warm and make the brain, heart, muscles and other organs work as they should. After treatment for hyperthyroidism, hormone production often slows down to hypothyroid levels.

It is rare, but these medications can also cause your body to produce fewer white blood cells, a condition called agranulocytosis. Rarely, these medications can damage your liver, so call your doctor immediately if you have symptoms such as yellow skin or eyes, fatigue, fever, sore throat or abdominal pain. The definitive treatments for Graves’ disease are those that destroy the thyroid gland, often resulting in hypothyroidism. Final radioactive iodine therapy is the most common treatment for Graves disease in the United States.

If the parathyroid glands are also removed, you may need medications to keep your blood calcium levels where they should be. Your thyroid gland is a small butterfly-shaped gland for your neck. It makes hormones that regulate the way the body uses energy. These hormones affect almost every organ in your body and control many of the most important functions in your body. For example, they affect your breathing, heart rate, weight, digestion and moods. If left untreated, hyperthyroidism can cause serious problems with the heart, bones, muscles, menstrual cycle and fertility.

You can develop an overactive thyroid because you have got too much iodine, an element that uses the thyroid to make its hormones. Or you may have growth in your thyroid that causes excessive hormone production. But many people with hyperthyroidism have an autoimmune disease called Graves’ disease that also causes their eyes to swell.