Most people accept the fact that as they age they will likely acquire gray hair & wrinkles. The outward signs of aging are well known, because we see them with our own eyes. What society doesn't know as well is how the inside of our bodies will change with the aging process. This is where we need a medical professional to explain to us the effects of aging process.

Unfortunately, the medical profession at large does not seem to be thoroughly familiar with this topic, particularly as it relates to women. This is in large part due to the fact that the majority of experiments done on aging are performed on male test studies, per Dr. Elizabeth Vliet in "Screaming To Be Heard". According to Dr. Vliet, many professionals rely on the data from tests performed purely on men to assess human body functioning in general, without distinguishing male from female. This might not pose a problem if men had periods or went through menopause!

It seems obvious that women will go through more hormonal fluctuation as they age. The natural hormonal fluctuations that women endure are going to be affected as they age, just as their skin loses its elasticity and its hair its color. The problem is, society does not reflect this internal aging process, because we are not told about it.

When I sat down to begin my own research on the hormones secreted by the thyroid gland, I was unsure of what I would find. From my own experiences with doctors over the years, I had come to believe that the thyroid is a tricky and little known gland in the female anatomy. If it werent, then more professionals would have a better understanding of the internal imbalances that women face. Furthermore, more women would be in tune to the hormonal balances. Needless to say, I did not expect to find much fruitful information.

I immediately found Mary Shomon's web page on thyroid related issues. I was astonished to find a general web site promoting a plethora of basic thyroid information. This site posted information that supported my own personal experiences testing NORMAL on thyroid tests, yet still suffering from thyroid related side-effects.

The most shocking to me was uncovering a single and comprehensive list of many of the actual symptoms of having a slow thyroid. As I continued my thyroid search, I found more symptoms generally associated with thyroid malfunction, and began my own list of symptoms. These are all listed on this site on its own separate page.

These symptoms shocked me, because none of them seemed like symptoms of anything to me. In fact, I thought that most of these symptoms came naturally with age for most women. I had never had any indication that these physical traits were abnormal, and finding the symptoms of hypothyroidism was the first time I had ever heard of them as symptoms.

I was equally surprised to note that there are people who are at a heightened risk of developing a slow thyroid. I compiled a list of those at risk symptoms and it is also posted on this site.

Putting these two categories together, I began to notice the enormity of the problem our society has on the failure to recognize the internal affects of aging on women. Based upon the broad range of symptoms and the common factors that increase your chance for developing a slow thyroid, there must exist many more women with thyroid problems than realize it. Giving birth, smoking, and being a woman are all pretty common in our society, all of which heighten a persons chances for developing a slow thyroid! If that is the case, though, then why arent more women informed of this? And why arent more women testing abnormal on their thyroid tests?

I happened to be displaying many of the generally accepted symptoms of hypothyroidism, yet I continued to test normal on my blood work. If someone displaying many of the most common symptoms of hypothyroidism could go undiagnosed, then what about all of the other women out there? There has to exist a substantial number of people displaying fewer symptoms than I did that have an equally malfunctioning thyroid.

Coincidentally, since discussing the wide range of symptoms with several friends and associates of mine, two very thin women were shocked to hear that fatigue and high cholesterol were side effects. Based upon these symptoms alone, they got tested - and guess what? They both had thyroid problems so out of balance that the lab contacted them immediately to let them know that they were hypothyroid. They didn't even have to go through the agony of looking for help like I did - they were so out of balanced, that it was easily detectable. The key here, though, is that their hypothyroidism was easily detectable once they knew what to look for. Because these women were thin, they never suspected an imbalanced thyroid. No doctor ever suggested it as a cause for their symptoms, either, but once they followed up on their own, the answer was very clear!

After my personal experiences with thyroid problems and after what I found out about the disease from my research and discussions with my doctor, I believe that the problem in thyroid diagnosis has to be attributed to the way the thyroid gland is tested, and the way that hypothyroidism is diagnosed.