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Does anyone know anout hypothyroidism..

My 18 year old brother developed deep stretch marks on his stomach. He was referred to a specialist by the gp who yesterday said he had borderline hypothyroidism and that his cortisone level was slightly high. They have put him on a steroid tablet tonight and he has to have a blood test tomorrow, Im not sure why.. does anyone have any idea or has had this before?

Also what potentially caused this problem as it tends to happen to older women..

Will he always have this problem?

Reply 1

Kindred

Original post by Anonymous

Hypothyroidism is a condition where your body doesn't have enough of a specific hormone produced by the thyroid gland. It is in at least most cases life long, bit also usually managed easily by replacing the missing hormone with suppliments. They take tablets with that hormone in daily and occasional tests are needed to make sure the dose is still right. All in all once treatment is started hypothyroidism is not a big deal.
Although it's more common in some types of people (like older women) it can happen to anybody. I believe the most common cause it's the person's immune system damaging the gland so it doesn't produce as much of the hormone, but essentially it's just caused by the gland not producing as much as it should for whatever reason.

It sounds like your brother has more than just that going on though and unfortunately I don't really know what it could be. A lot of big symptoms can be caused by little issues though so even if things are looking really scary at the moment it didn't mean it will be a big issue forever.

Blood tests are one of the best ways for doctors to see what's going on with with a person. Blood is what carries most of the stuff around our bodies so by testing blood you can see how much of hormones, vitamins etc people have, if there are any germs hitchhiking in their blood, even if they are dehydrated. They'll be doing blood tests to check what's going on with your brother. It's a really common thing because almost everything is tested with blood.

I know it's pretty freaky when all this stuff is going on, but he's in good hands and for now you just need to wait and see. No use worrying over unknowns when it's being looked into.

I hope that helps at least somewhat. :smile: