I know many people that are diabetic that have had thyroid issues of some type. Personally I have been a T1D for 41 years and have great control as my A1C’s always run 5 to 6 and I have had no long term effects from my diabetes yet except how it might be related to my thyroid issues. In my case I started out with an enlarged thyroid and ultimately had thyroid cancer, which had to be removed.
It doesn’t sound like the scientific community knows the connection between diabetes and thyroid problems but one thing that could be the reason in my case is that I’ve had a DNA screening done and it showed that I had a higher chance of T1D and thyroid cancer (two of the top issues it flagged). Unfortunately I did the screening after these happened but none the less it was amazing that it was right on in identifying these issues.
I did this relatively inexpensively by getting the testing done at 23andme and then sending the results file to a DNA analysis service called Promethease because 23andme has to get FDA approval for everything they are allowed to report, which for now is very limited. Promethease runs a very detailed report on what’s been found based on the latest research. The good thing is I can rerun the report very inexpensively at anytime to update it with the latest research data.
The value in having this data is that it helped me identify potential issues and take measures to keep and eye on them before they become a major problem. One word of warning is don’t do if you think you are the type of person that could get overly paranoid with the results. It does not guarantee the things it flags will happen but you could have a higher chance of it happening. This is an area of medicine that is getting better and more useful everyday!
Bottom line is there is a lot of evidence to suggest diabetics should get their thyroid checked regularly and I’d also suggest you consider having your DNA screening done.