Thyroid disease: the crisis no one talks about

One in eight women will develop a thyroid condition in their lifetime. Katie Strick opens up about her six-year rollercoaster

I WAITED until I'd reached the sixth floor bathroom before I burst into tears. According to the endocrinologist I'd spent four years battling to see, my underactive thyroid was not only behind the sluggishness, the stomach issues and the weight gain I'd been experiencing for six plus years, but it was likely to be behind the month's-long brain fog that had started to make me think I was quite possibly losing my mind and at the very least losing my spark.

That was just the start of the bombshells, it transpired. Had my GP not told me I should be on a higher dose of medication? Did I realise that my thyroid condition may well affect my chances of getting pregnant if I planned to have a baby in the next few years? And was I aware I was likely to have this autoimmune thing called Hashimoto's disease, the predominant cause of hypothyroidism? "Hashi-what?" I repeated, not only completely overwhelmed but oddly embarrassed by the apparently gaping hole in my vocabulary.

"The bit that got me was when the consultant told me how lost I seemed," I voice-noted a friend on my way home from the appointment - the latest in a six-year rollercoaster with the whole thing, from years spent wondering what was behind my increasing fatigue, puffy face and ice-cold feet (yep, I'm that weirdo who wears socks in bed in July), to the see-saw of symptoms versus side-effects of the medication that's meant to help. "I think it was the kindness that made me cry," I went on, my brain playing me a highlights (lowlights) reel of all of those years of selfdoubt (maybe the low mood was job stress) and self-judgment (maybe I did need to do more exercise). "I guess it's just the first time that anyone's actually taken the time to piece all of this health stuff together and tell me I wasn't being hysterical after all." If you're wondering what on earth this thyroid thing is, you're not alone.