Many men question why their wives are acting the way they are. “All of a sudden” they are different. Midlife crisis is pointed to as the reason.

I suspect it isn’t all of a sudden, but the culmination of many things changing until he finally takes notice. Or until she says she just can’t handle it any more. Or until she yells for help.

In some cases the wife may be suffering from a physical ailment and not a mental or emotional one. What I’ve learned from my own experience, and a lot of research, is that diseases of the thyroid are silent but they play major tricks on a person’s body and mind. And I have also learned that if these diseases can be kept under control, life can return to normal.

I consider myself well read and yet I never considered the possibility that I might have a disease that would leave me fatigued, fat, and feeling older than I am. But that’s part of what Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis can do. And it’s fairly common among women 40 and older. It’s also heriditary, but, you may be like me, the first in your family to actually have the condition diagnosed and treated.

Any woman over 40 who is not feeling up to par, who is gaining weight despite her best efforts to lose, and who feels tired from the moment she gets up in the morning, needs to get to a doctor and request that her thyroid function be checked. It can happen at any age, but 40 and over is most common.

A simple blood workup will show whether or not the thyroid is doing its job. I’m oversimplifying everything because I’m not a doctor. I’m a patient. And now you might call me an advocate for the cause. I had an idea of what my diagnosis would be based upon the test results that were coming in and the research I was doing on the Web. I put it all together before my doctor put the words to paper.

It’s not just women who suffer from thyroid disease. So, may I suggest that if you’re feeling less than yourself, outgrowing the clothes in your closet, and exhausted every minute, tell your doctor to run a blood test to be sure your thyroid is functioning within normal ranges. If not, knowing the problem will put you on the road toward correcting it. In many cases, one little pill every day will be all it takes to get back to normal.

© Pat Gaudette. All rights reserved.