One day my body suddenly broke

from severe hypothyroidism.

I knew it and I feared it

but I clawed my way back to health

one scientific study at a time

and told the world.

Hypothyroid Mom has over ONE MILLION followers.

What’s crazy about all this?

I never used social media ever before the launch of Hypothyroid Mom in 2012, yet somehow I knew deep within me that this was what I was meant to do.

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism after birth of my first son Benjamin in 2006. I was overwhelmed with fatigue. The pregnancy weight was impossible to lose. My hair was falling out. The heels of my feet were cracked and my scalp itched. My legs were numb to the touch. Unusually heavy menstrual bleeding, chronic constipation, and constant infections plagued me. A healthy woman prior to pregnancy and now suddenly my blood levels indicated I was at high risk for heart disease and diabetes. What had happened to me?

“Doctor knows best” or that is what I grew up believing. I followed their thyroid drug protocol to the letter never once thinking they might not know everything there was to know about hypothyroidism, especially when I became pregnant again in late 2008. I assumed that in New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world, doctors would have all the answers.

The 2007 Endocrine Society’s clinical guidelines for the Management of Thyroid Dysfunction during Pregnancy and Postpartum clearly included the following recommendations:

• If hypothyroidism has been diagnosed before pregnancy, thyroid hormone replacement medication dosage should be adjusted to reach a TSH level not higher than 2.5 mIU/L prior to pregnancy.
• If overt hypothyroidism is diagnosed during pregnancy, thyroid function tests should be normalized as rapidly as possible to TSH levels of less than 2.5 mIU/L in the first trimester (or 3 mIU/L in the second and third trimester).”

Throughout my first trimester, my TSH flew higher than the above recommended 2.5 mIU/L, soaring up to 10.0 mIU/L, endangering the life of my fetus and I miscarried.

I had lost a child, all because my doctors had not read the published guidelines. And my child was not alone. According to a study published in the journal Thyroid in 2010, three waves of mail surveys were distributed to 1601 health care providers, all members of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists or the American Academy of Family Physicians. Of the 575 providers who completed the survey, only 11.5 percent (66/575) had actually read the Endocrine Society’s 2007 pregnancy guidelines.

I failed to be an advocate for my child and I will live with that regret for the rest of my life.

It’s important to give you a bit of background on my education and work experience. This is not to brag or to toot my own horn but to help you better understand my story.

I graduated with an Hons.B.Sc. in Neuroscience with High Distinction (the equivalent of summa cum laude) from the University of Toronto in 1993. I was awarded multiple prestigious scholarships and placed on the Dean’s list 3 out of my 4 years of study. After completing my B.Ed. at the University of Western Ontario, I was a high school biology teacher for several years in a specialized Gifted program.

I then set my sights on an Ivy League education and moved to NYC with my husband to attend Columbia University where I completed two graduate degrees, an M.A. in Organizational Psychology and Ed.M. in Psychological Counseling. I held the role of team leader of a tenured professor’s research team during the course of my studies and was publicly acknowledged in a study published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology.

Over the next ten years, I worked on Wall Street in one of the largest banks in the country as a senior manager in learning & development specializing in executive coaching and top talent training. I’ve also held a seat on the Board of Directors of numerous non-profit organizations over my career including the Board of Trustees of the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York and served as Vice President of the New York City Chapter of The Association for Career Professionals International.

From a highly ambitious, high-achieving person, I crumbled under the weight of severe hypothyroidism. And as I lay on a medical table awaiting the surgical removal of my miscarried baby from my body, I vowed to take down this beast of a disease. I was no stranger to scientific research so why not use my science background and research skills to learn everything I could about my thyroid disease? I devoured every, single published research article on hypothyroidism that I could find. I went on to have a healthy pregnancy and my second son was born against all odds.

I couldn’t keep my mouth shut about what had happened to me and felt compelled to warn people. With 750 million people worldwide with thyroid disease, and over half undiagnosed, I became determined to find every single one. And Hypothyroid Mom was born.