Living with Hyperthyroidism: My Past, Finding Out, Symptoms, Cause, and Diet

Four years ago.

I married the love of my life. I weighed 70 kg. I got pregnant after two months and by the end of my pregnancy, my weight was 85 kg.

Three years ago.

I got to kiss my first child who had been living in my belly for 9 consecutive months. I lost 15 kg and came back to my original weight. I kept losing weight but I thought it was perfectly normal for a breastfeeding mother, as everyone told me so. I was weighed when my baby was one year-old.

Two years ago.

I lost 15 kgs in 10 days because I ate something I wasn’t allowed to eat with empty stomach. I was in my worst shape, weighing less than 45 kgs. With 158 cm height, I looked so tiny and fragile. I had no idea when I started to grow hyperthyroidism but since two years ago, I have been struggling with weight and health problems.

I used to be active. I jogged almost every morning. I was a hiker and a traveller. I climbed mountains. I went cities and abroad backpacking. There was nothing that could stop me in terms of physical ability. Becoming so weak in only 10 days didn’t make sense to me except only because of my weight loss. Domestic work was exhausting and it took the whole day to finish everything.

I also grew angrier. I was angry at myself for being so tired all the time. I was irritated at small daily problems. I hated people who looked down on me for being so tiny and weak. I couldn’t focus on one thing and I was so easily distracted. So, I lost my two favorite jobs.

As my baby grew older and more independent, I decided to continue my study. My plan was only to have something to do but of course it wasn’t as easy as that. Master study took most of my time and thoughts because, again, I was easily distracted in class, while reading, writing homework, preparing presentation, with domestic work always waiting. I lost even more weight. I never felt good physically and mentally. I even thought I was depressed and needed pills. 

Finding out

Saturday (21 June), I was chatting with my doctor in-law. We were talking about random stuff then out of the blue, she asked me about my weight. She’s been living faraway and hadn’t seen me for months. It was nothing but she kept asking me about my sugar level, my diet, if my study affected me, whether I was depressed, my heart rate. Too many questions. But once she asked me if I had a tremor, the following questions she asked me were all answered ‘yes’. I was afraid if I had something serious. She told me I might have hyperthyroidism and recommended me to see a doctor the next day. I then googled on the topic and sadly, even before seeing a doctor, it was true that I had it.

The Symptoms

Hyperthyroidism turns out to be a pretty common problem, especially for women. It’s easy to find literature, researches and stories from people who have it. You don’t have to feel every single symptom to convince you see a doctor. The sooner the better. From my experience and some stories I heard, read or watch, the most common symptoms are:

• Losing weight and keep losing it.
• High appetite. I’m always hungry and I eat a lot.
• You keep going to the loo.
• Always thirsty and it makes your trip to the loo also more often.
• You heart rate is higher than usual.
• Because your heart beats faster, you become easily frustrated and irritated.
• You are too sweaty.
• You are more often exhausted even from simple activities.
• It’s hard to concentrate and focus.
• Goiter (gondok)

And for some people, they also:

• Feel like their eyes are popping out.
• Eyes keep getting dry and you have to carry eye…. With you all the time.
• Can’t stand heat. They can’t be under the sun in midday because their heart will beat even faster.

Cause and Diet

My in-laws and my doctor who is specialized in internal disease told me the same thing about cause and diet. There hasn’t been any research that proved the cause of hyperthyroidism. It doesn’t have anything to do with what food you eat nor whether you have enough sleep or what exercise you do. What might cause it are: (1) member of your older family had it (be it your mother/father, grandmother/father, and the people before them), (2) you had a difficult pregnancy and/or giving birth. For me, I don’t have any older family who had it before and I had trouble-free pregnancy and simple c-section.