Catherine, Anne E. and all, After some browsing in endocrinology
texts, I have gotten the sense that some endos feel that it is
common for some "trauma" - physical (eg infection) or emotional
(eg death in family) - to effectively trigger onset of thyroid
disease. Catherine's suggestion that the metabolic stress of
pregnancy could be a trigger makes sense to me, especially
following Anne's later revelations. My question for the network
-
 I guess I didn't make it clear - is there any documentation of
a difference in incidence of onset of thyroid disease between pp
bottle-feeding women and pp breastfeeding women?
I would also like to know about infants/babies: difference in
incidence of onset of thyroid disease in infants being bottle
fed/breastfed?
My opinion about screening is that if the health system can
afford it, it certainly should be pushed and pushed hard. Even
harder push postpartum. Ever wonder how many women "didn't have
milk" because actually they were hypothyroid? LET'S DO IT!
Anne, please help me with medical terminology. Stedman's was not
clear: does the term thyroiditis which you used include both
hyper- and hypo- ? Eg Graves' and Hashimoto? Stedman's had me
running back and forth, sorry to bother you. Regards, Judy Knopf