# Thyroidectomy for Graves of 12 Years



## JackL (6 mo ago)

Not sure if anyone has addressed this, so apologies if so. I've been medicating my graves for about 12 years now and am leaning towards thyroid removal. My hope is I might be able to stabilize some nagging issues: minor anxiety, voice changes, muscle cramping, amongst a few other things. While my labs are stable and look good, I believe I am not. Wondering if anyone here was in a similar situation and how they/you reacted after having had your thyroid removed. Thanks in advance!

Jack


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## cujet (Feb 6, 2015)

I'm profoundly hypothyroid due to Hashimoto's and severe illness more than 25 years ago. So, I have absolutely no thyroid hormones. I would guess it's much like having thyroid removal. Getting my treatment correct has been an absolute struggle that took 25 years. 

I am just guessing, but it is possible that your other symptoms are not thyroid related, but rather "autoimmune" related. In my case, I have many issues that are caused by my autoimmune disease. I now have to take 10mg prednisone to keep other symptoms in check. 

I take 12.5mcg T3 (Cytomel) 6x per day (every 4 hours) 

In the end, Synthroid (T4 only) was useless, Synthroid plus Cytomel (T3) failed quickly too. NDT (natural thyroid) was better, but still loaded with problems and I had to take it 3x or 4x per day just to be awake. Only the T3-only therapy worked for me. 

I don't know how to advise you, but I would suggest that drugs don't work anywhere near as well as a functional thyroid. 

If you can manage your autoimmune disease and manage your naturally produced thyroid levels to the normal level, why not do so?


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