If you’re anything like me, you might have spent years trying to get the doctor to listen to you when you described your low thyroid symptoms. Many women go years without a proper diagnosis, some never get a diagnosis at all.

Why? In the UK, largely due to lack of effective tools and testing, lack of understanding of the problem or due to a propensity by doctors to see the wider symptoms of anxiety, sleeplessness and wider malaise as the root cause rather than the thyroid issue itself. It’s not uncommon for women to be pushed towards anti depression medication rather than towards thyroid treatment.

there’s then a further issue in that the standard test for “thyroid” in the UK actually tests one component: TSH, which is measured on a broad range (so that “normal” can include anything but), is variable depending on time of day and time of cycle and in any case doesn’t address the root cause of most womens’ thyroid issues which is the ability of the body to convert T4 into T3 caused by stress. Learn more about that here.

All of this needs to change: there are women who badly need treatment forced to go without it, but many more who could take control of their thyroid issues by looking at their stress levels and adapting their lifestyle.

What’s worth noting is that