“After my third birth, this goitre appeared quite quickly.
"What I now know is that it has to do with the foetus using up the body’s iodine during pregnancy.
"The effect, apart from visible swelling, is hypothyroidism – meaning the thyroid isn’t producing enough hormone to meet the body’s needs. Even though the goitre was observed, and tests done, resulting in a partial thyroidectomy a few months later, no connection was made with the overwhelming tiredness that drew me back to bed as if by a magnet!
"I was not depressed but was diagnosed with postnatal depression.
"I’m sure you know how disastrous it can be to be treated with psychoactive antidepressants when not depressed! So, pregnant women, watch that throat. The benefit of hindsight!
"Maybe medicine has moved on. I hope so. This was 45 years ago.
"Poor baby, in a cradle next to her mummy in hospital, post operation! Where the surgeon, leading his flock of acolytes, stood by my bedside and announced, ‘This is Mrs Barry. She is emotionally labile*’! Unable to respond as I had lost my voice due to nerve damage!”
(*Labile means your emotions are easily aroused. It was probably lucky for the surgeon you couldn’t speak, Maxine!)
This story was sent to us and is reproduced with the writer’s permission.
Find out more about hypothyroidism in the summer edition of Women's Health Tasmania's magazine > https://www.womenshealthtas.org.au/sites/default/files/resources/januar…