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