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Women, watch your thyroid!
Are you female, over 30 and do you have vitiligo? Then have your thyroid checked!
It appears that female vitiligo patients in particular are at risk of developing a thyroid disorder later in life. The AMC in Amsterdam now screens all women with vitiligo from the age of 30 for thyroid abnormalities.
This is what Dr. Wietze van der Veen, until recently a dermatologist at the AMC/SNIP and now at Medisch Centrum Haaglanden, says in the latest issue of Spotlight! He also always tests the thyroid gland in children with vitiligo, although fortunately the chance that a child has a thyroid disorder is very small (6 percent).
Thyroid disorders are - just like vitiligo - autoimmune diseases. Vitiligo patients have an increased risk of developing another autoimmune disease, with thyroid disease being the most common. Your thyroid gland is located at the front of your neck and produces hormones.
For me it was the other way around. I developed Hasimoto's disease at 13 and vitiligo at 16.
I have had vigilito all my life, but even as a little girl, it started small and gradually expanded.
And I got mss before when I was 15, but then they found out that I have thyroid problems... I am now 31, but my thyroid is only now finally stable through medication... So age doesn't mean much
Thyroid failure seems to occur mainly in women with vitiligo. Men with vitiligo are at much lower risk.