My beautiful 8 year-old granddaughter was just dx’d with hypothyroid–TSH level of 67.2 where normal is something like 5. She’s been increasingly sad and listless and uncomfortably low-energy over the last year or more, so it’s great to have a dx and a treatment. I realize it’s a bit off-topic for TUD but I’m asking here because this is where I learned that there was a T1 and hypo-T association. The problem is that everything I read is all from the p.o.v. that if you have T1 you should be concerned about developing hypothyroidism, but I can’t find anything about wether it works the other way as well–whether if you develop hypo-T as a kid, you should be vigilant about developing T1. Does anyone here know?
ETA: I know not all forms of hypo-T are auto-immune. Not sure whether hers is or not, though I know there’s a hereditary predisposition to hypo-T on her father’s side, if that has anything to do with it.
So sorry your little granddaughter has to deal with hypothyroidism, but what a relief it must be to know what was going on with her mood and body. I was diagnosed hypothyroid a few years before I was diagnosed T1, both as an adult. So for me, the order of diagnosis was hypothyroid to T1, but who knows how long my LADA/T1 had been hanging around. That being said, my mom and many other women I know, have been hypothyroid for many years without any indication of diabetes, so maybe she’ll be a lucky one.
As best as I understand is that there is an association, not causation. One one has an autoimmune disease of any kind you have several times more probability of having another. In my case, RA, and AS came along several years after type 1.
The thing to remember is that one is not a precursor of another. Again on another instance, my mom had type 1 for over 24 years. She passed of complications. Mom was very ill with some issues, but she never had RA or AS. With well over 80 different autoimmune conditions it is statically probable that many with one will have more. But as hard as I have tried to link RA and type, I have never been able to do it. We need a study of the coincidence of the diseases.
I am sorry for how bad I know you must feel about it. Sheryl and I will be praying for the beautiful child
