Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffHashimoto's disease does not have unique signs and symptoms. The disease typically progresses slowly over a number of years and causes chronic thyroid damage, leading to a drop in thyroid hormone levels in your blood. The signs and symptoms are mainly those of an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism).
The signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism vary widely, depending on the severity of hormone deficiency. At first, you may barely notice any symptoms, such as fatigue and sluggishness, or you may simply attribute them to getting older. But as the disease progresses, you may develop more obvious signs and symptoms. Signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism include:
- Fatigue and sluggishness
- Increased sensitivity to cold
- Constipation
- Pale, dry skin
- A puffy face
- Hoarse voice
- An elevated blood cholesterol level
- Unexplained weight gain - occurring infrequently and rarely more than 10 to 20 pounds, most of which is fluid
- Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness, especially in your shoulders and hips
- Pain and stiffness in your joints and swelling in your knees or the small joints in your hands and feet
- Muscle weakness, especially in your lower extremities
- Excessive or prolonged menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia)
- Depression
Without treatment, signs and symptoms gradually become more severe and your thyroid gland may become enlarged (goiter). In addition, you may become more forgetful, your thought processes may slow, or you may feel depressed.
When to see a doctor
See your doctor if you're feeling tired for no apparent reason or have any other signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as dry skin, a pale, puffy face, constipation or a hoarse voice.
You'll also need to see your doctor for periodic testing of your thyroid function if you've had previous thyroid surgery, treatment with radioactive iodine or anti-thyroid medications, or radiation therapy to your head, neck or upper chest.
If you have high blood cholesterol, talk to your doctor about whether hypothyroidism may be a cause. And if you're receiving hormone therapy for hypothyroidism caused by Hashimoto's disease, schedule follow-up visits as often as your doctor recommends. Initially, it's important to make sure you're receiving the correct dose of medicine. And over time, the dose you need to adequately replace your thyroid function may change.
- Hashimoto's Disease: What it is and how it's treated. American Academy of Family Physicians. http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/hormone/548.html. Accessed December 9, 2008.
- Hennessey J, et al, eds. Hashimoto's disease. The Hormone Foundation. http://www.hormone.org/Resources/Thyroid/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=1113. Accessed December 9, 2008.
- Brent GA, et al. Hypothyroidism and thyroiditis. In: Kronenberg HM, et al, eds. Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. 11th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: W.B. Saunders; 2008:387.
- Davies, TF. Pathogenesis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (chronic autoimmune thyroiditis). http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed December 9, 2008.
- Frequently asked questions: Hashimoto's thyroiditis. US Department of Health & Human Services. http://www.4woman.gov/faq/hashimoto-thyroiditis.cfm. Accessed December 9, 2008.
- Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec12/ch152/ch152d.html. Accessed December 9, 2008.
- Ross DS. Treatment of hypothyroidism. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed December 9, 2008.
