{"id":456267,"date":"2026-06-02T01:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456267\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T01:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:19:14","slug":"these-thyroid-disorder-symptoms-are-easy-to-mistake-for-normal-ageing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456267\/","title":{"rendered":"These thyroid disorder symptoms are easy to mistake for normal ageing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in your neck. It produces hormones that help regulate important physiological functions including your metabolism, energy, heart rate, body temperature and mood, said Ruchi Gaba, associate professor of endocrinology at Baylor College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

When the thyroid doesn\u2019t work as it should, either producing too little or too much of these hormones, you can end up with a variety of vague but potentially severe symptoms affecting many different parts of your body and brain.<\/p>\n

About 20 million people in the United States have thyroid problems, and 12% of the population will develop one in their lifetime, according to the American Thyroid Association. Thyroid dysfunction is much more common – five to eight times as likely – in women than men, and 1 in 8 women will have a thyroid problem at some point in their lives. The prevalence also increases with age: Up to 25% of adults 65 and older may have some type of thyroid dysfunction, although not always severe enough to cause symptoms.<\/p>\n

While experts say thyroid dysfunction is generally simple to diagnose and treat, it\u2019s also easy to dismiss symptoms or blame them on other causes, including ageing-related health changes, as Vogel did.<\/p>\n

Common signs of thyroid dysfunction<\/p>\n

Think of your thyroid as your body\u2019s speed control. Hyperthyroidism happens when the thyroid releases too much thyroid hormone, which Gaba said can cause anxiety, diarrhoea, weight loss and insomnia. Hypothyroidism is the opposite, stemming from too little thyroid hormone. This is what can be easily confused with ageing-related changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt slows down the entire body,\u201d said Huda Al-Bahadili, an endocrinologist at WashU Medicine. With hypothyroidism, she said, people may experience fatigue, weight gain, feeling cold or sensitivity to cold, constipation, difficulty concentrating, brain fog, and dry skin and hair.<\/p>\n

As Vogel described, these symptoms can often be debilitating. \u201cI\u2019m a morning person, and I had no motivation,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d get eight to nine hours of sleep, and by noon I was ready for a nap, and I\u2019m not a napper.\u201d <\/p>\n

The cognitive effects made it hard to retain information. \u201cI\u2019d have to listen to something three or four times before I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most common type of hypothyroidism, Al-Bahadili said, is Hashimoto\u2019s disease, a.k.a. Hashimoto\u2019s thyroiditis, which occurs when the body (for unknown reasons) creates antibodies that attack the gland, impairing thyroid function.<\/p>\n

Thyroiditis, or inflammation of the thyroid, can have other causes including viral or bacterial infections, radiation therapy for head and neck cancers, or certain medications such as amiodarone, which treats irregular heartbeat and contains a large amount of iodine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inflammation that causes a transient increase in thyroid hormone, and as that process resolves, it can lead to hypothyroidism,\u201d said Beth Lalande, an endocrinologist with the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network.<\/p>\n

Rarely, Lalande said, problems with the central nervous system – such as a tumour in the pituitary gland in the brain -\u202fcan trigger hypothyroidism.<\/p>\n

How to know if it\u2019s your thyroid or something else<\/p>\n

Many symptoms of hypothyroidism come on gradually and might start around the same time as a stressful life event or big change, Gaba said. \u201cSo people usually adjust to how they are feeling and assume it\u2019s part of getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Add in the fact that the risk of hypothyroidism increases with age, according to Lalande, and it makes it even more difficult to sort out what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

While the wide range of age-related changes and hormonal shifts can have overlapping symptoms with thyroid dysfunction, Gaba said, there are some key differences. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to think about the patterns to help you realise if it\u2019s out of proportion to just ageing,\u201d Al-Bahadili said.<\/p>\n

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to figure out if your thyroid is to blame:<\/p>\n

Do your symptoms come and go, or are they chronic?\u00a0According to Lalande, thyroid dysfunction symptoms are typically persistent, while symptoms due to other issues may ebb and flow over time. Estrogen fluctuations during perimenopause, for example, can cause ups and downs in energy and mood (though these may become more constant as perimenopause progresses). Other age-related factors, such as inconsistent sleep, increased stress or changes in activity level and exercise recovery, can also cause fatigue and brain fog that varies from day to day.Are you still tired after a good night of sleep?\u00a0Lalande said thyroid-related fatigue generally causes constant sluggishness. You may sleep well at night but still feel tired, and find that nothing helps boost your energy. Hormonal-related fatigue, on the other hand, is often related to interrupted sleep, which Lalande said doesn\u2019t tend to happen with hypothyroidism. Other age-related changes, health conditions and even medications can make you more likely to experience insomnia, which can make it hard to fall asleep or go back to sleep if you do wake up in the middle of the night.Where are you noticing most of your weight gain?\u00a0Menopause-related weight gain often centres on the midsection, according to Lalande, while thyroid weight gain is often more distributed throughout the body. Thyroid problems may also cause a feeling of fullness or visible swelling in the front of the neck, Al-Bahadili said.Do you have a higher risk of thyroid problems?\u00a0Medical history is another differentiating factor, Al-Bahadili added: you\u2019re more likely to develop thyroid dysfunction if someone in your family had it, or if you have a personal history of another autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n

If you think you may have a thyroid problem – or you have bothersome symptoms but aren\u2019t sure what\u2019s going on – Lalande suggested making an appointment with your primary care provider. Thyroid dysfunction is generally easy to diagnose with a blood test, and your provider can rule out any other conditions or hormonal imbalances at that time, too.<\/p>\n

If you indeed have a thyroid problem, treatment is usually straightforward and affordable. Hypothyroidism is usually managed with a daily prescription medication that replaces your thyroid hormone.<\/p>\n

After more than a year of brushing her symptoms aside, Vogel eventually saw an endocrinologist, who prescribed her levothyroxine, a synthetic thyroid hormone. \u201cWithin 24 hours, I slept through the night, I got up, and I felt like I could run a marathon. Now I feel like me again. I can stay focused. It\u2019s perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in your neck. It produces hormones that help regulate important physiological functions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10791,192,108170,4500,8278,9947,1595,17438,2082,134,231880,13620,151056,28166,111,139,12909,69,193,384,10057,12072,24359,5391,61,2766],"class_list":["post-456267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ageing","tag-are","tag-brush","tag-changes","tag-conditions","tag-delay","tag-disorder","tag-easy","tag-for","tag-health","tag-hormonal","tag-leading","tag-mimic","tag-mistake","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-normal","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-people","tag-problems","tag-symptoms","tag-these","tag-thyroid","tag-to","tag-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}