Are you a woman in your child bearing years who’s suddenly lost weight and feel anxious, irritable and shaky for no apparent reason? After a period of time, did your symptoms dissipate and leave you with fatigue and muscle weakness? This symptom pattern tends to indicate lymphocytic thyroiditis, also called silent thyroiditis.
Silent thyroiditis is a health condition marked by your thyroid over producing its hormones for a month or so (hyperthyroidism), followed by a period of underproduction (hypothyroidism), which then goes back to overproduction. Essentially, you seesaw back and forth between the feeling of having too much energy to one of not enough.
With lymphocytic thyroiditis your thyroid gland is inflamed with lymphocytes and antibodies. Why it occurs is unknown. What is known is that the health condition most often happens to women who are postpartum. Although silent thyroiditis can arise in men and in women who haven’t been through a recent childbirth. And for those who experience vacillating thyroid hormone symptoms after one pregnancy your risk is high any subsequent pregnancy will be followed up in a like manner.
The initial symptoms of silent thyroiditis are caused by an overactive thyroid gland. This health condition can result in variety of symptoms, such as:
- tremors
- heat sensitivity
- sleep difficulties
- appetite increase
- excessive sweating
- irregular menstrual cycle
- sudden, inexplicable weight loss
- nervousness, anxiety & irritability
- tachycardia, arrhythmia or palpitations
- increased frequency of bowel movements
You may see a goiter develop toward the bottom of your neck because your thyroid gland is swollen.
These symptoms may last for a couple of months and then be followed by symptoms an underactive thyroid, including:
- fatigue
- myalgia
- arthralgia
- weight gain
- dry skin, hair
- muscle spasms
- cold intolerance
- muscle weakness
For many, their silent thyroiditis resolves itself in about a year.
Generally, treatment involves taking beta blockers to relieve symptoms of rapid heart rate and excessive sweating during excess hormone phase. During the deficit phase of lymphocytic thyroiditis thyroid hormone replacement may be given to those experiencing severe symptoms.
Lymphocytic thyroiditis is a variant of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, aka chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, which is the most common inflammatory condition of the thyroid. Some cases of silent thyroiditis advance into this autoimmune condition.