New here questions

Welcome to HealingWell, Teddtlove. I think if your thyroid is under control, pursuing a name for your condition would be just to satisfy your curiosity to know, and seeing an endocrinologist would be just adding another specialist to your list. (I know what you're talking about because I have several myself.)

You might start by asking your doctor what the diagnosis is, as sometimes they fail to use the formal name thinking it's more important for us to understand the function of the disease. Your doctor should answer your questions and should be willing to discuss formal diagnosis with you. If he is unable to answer all your questions and you still want to know more, a visit with an endocrinologist might be helpful to you.

Graves disease causes hyperthyroidism, so it's a safe bet you don't have that. You could have either simple hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's disease, which typically presents with unstable thyroid hormone levels and can be more difficult to regulate. Since all of these types of thyroid problems are thought to be autoimmune, you would be at increased risk for any one of them. On the plus side, thyroid tumors usually don't cause hypothyroidism and your doctor would have been feeling that on exam, so you're not likely to have a tumor.

Be sure your doctor is monitoring free T3 and T4 as well as TSH. TSH is thyroid stimulating hormone; if it is low you're likely to be hyperthyroid. Hypothyroid people usually have an elevated TSH.

I hope our forum will be helpful for you, and again welcome.

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Ulcerative colitis diagnosed in 2001; symptoms as early as 1992. In remission since 2006 with Remicade.
Inflammatory osteoarthritis; osteonecrosis from steroids
Grave's disease successfully treated with radioactive iodine and now on Levothyroxine.
Type II diabetes induced by steroids.
Meds: Remicade, Colazal, Levothyroxine, Mobic, Metformin

Moderator, thyroid forum