Your thyroid
Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. Its hormones control how your body uses energy, and affect nearly every organ — including your breathing, heart rate, weight, digestion and mood.
Thyroid diseases make the gland produce too much or too little hormone.
Types
| Disease | What it is |
|---|---|
| Goiter | an enlarged thyroid |
| Hyperthyroidism | the thyroid makes more hormone than the body needs |
| Hypothyroidism | the thyroid does not make enough |
| Thyroid cancer | cancer of the gland |
| Thyroid nodules | lumps in the thyroid |
| Thyroiditis | swelling of the thyroid |
Diagnosis
Your provider may use your medical history, a physical exam and thyroid tests — sometimes a biopsy.
Treatment
It depends on the problem, how severe it is and your symptoms. Options include medicines, radioiodine therapy and surgery.
Sources
Based on "Thyroid Diseases," MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, drawing on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from medlineplus.gov
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