I am now in the US, I had hyperthyroidism some time ago and had iodine 131 in the US, I found that people’s understanding of iodine 131 is completely different from the US and western medicine, I also met with the best doctors in the Union Hospital and 307 Hospital (and my parents’ friends helped me to make a private appointment), so I would like to share my experience here and give some hope to those who want to have iodine 131 treatment. I would like to share my experience with you and give you some information that I hope will be useful to you.
I was found out to have hyperthyroidism 1 month ago, and I have been taking TAPAZOL for 2 weeks, but I didn’t take any hyperthyroidism (TAPAZOL) before, and I took Iodine 131 capsules 1 week ago. It’s okay!
First of all, Iodine 131 can cause hypothyroidism 100% of the time, the most authoritative endocrinologist in China told me so, but Chinese doctors are conservative in their dosage, so some people get hypothyroid soon, some start to lose it after 10 years, some after 20 years, and so on. The American doctors told me directly that I should take thyroxine tablets for the rest of my life, because the American doctors are relatively large in dosage, so basically all of them have hypothyroidism within 1 or 2 years.
In China, some patients who got hypothyroidism later doubted the doctor’s medical ethics or something, which is quite unwarranted. In fact, I personally think that the size of the measurement does not matter, the American people think that since sooner or later they will be hypothyroid, it is better to let the body adapt to this state early, and then more check-ups, timely adjustment of the amount of thyroxine. Chinese doctors think it is good to be conservative, but if the dosage is too conservative, many people will not be completely cured with one dose of Iodine 131 and will need two or three doses of Iodine 131, which will eventually lead to hypothyroidism. But hypothyroidism is not terrible. In the US, hypothyroidism is cured because the risk is much lower than hyperthyroidism.
By the way, I would like to tell you about the treatment of hyperthyroidism in the US. Doctors in the US will tell their patients that the possibility of relapse is very high. Especially for women who have not had children, it is almost inevitable that they will relapse during pregnancy, and then they will have to take medication to control it.
Therefore, the majority of women in the United States choose to have iodine 131 because it is psychologically and physically torturous to be examined frequently. Another important point is that if you are planning to get pregnant, American doctors usually recommend Iodine 131. American medicine generally believes that there is a risk of taking the drug during pregnancy, even with PTU, and that even if the child is born healthy, the IQ is more than 10 points lower than that of a normal child. Therefore, if you are planning to get pregnant, almost all Americans are treated with Iodine 131 first.
The American doctors talked to me for almost 3 hours before my treatment about all my worries and concerns, and they told me that this technology has been very mature for decades. The two main concerns were 1. Will it affect conception and pregnancy? The answer is that the risk is the same as a normal pregnancy, will I be more prone to cancer? They told me the risk is the same as a healthy person.
I also asked if it would affect my life expectancy, and they told me that it would not affect my life expectancy at all (to avoid any doubt, I have health insurance and it’s cheap, which means they won’t make money to make me do 131, which is more expensive than 131). They also told me that it was like buying food to eat because your family can’t produce it, and that there was no need to worry about taking thyroxine tablets in time.
Perhaps you are concerned about the advice I received from Chinese doctors, I saw a total of 4 doctors (I won’t mention their names, they are basically the most authoritative), 2 from Xiehe and 2 from 307 nuclear medicine doctors. Three of them advised me to use Iodine 131, and one doctor thought I was not too heavy to take the medication first but did not oppose 131.
Most people don’t feel anything after taking Iodine 131, 20% of people will have a transient exacerbation, I see many people don’t know or ignore this and think they are miserable, in fact it is completely normal, usually after 2 weeks it will be fine, or 4 weeks for those who are slower to feel comfortable, but at most 8 weeks they should feel very good. I now feel weak, and then quite nauseous, but today there is not much feeling after the activity is a little tired.
Well, that’s about it. I hope it’s useful to you. I have friends in the United States during my illness, and everyone is very, very optimistic, so I hope my words will be useful to everyone, and have more confidence in the treatment, I really hope everyone will get better:)
In the United States, we are constantly checking to see when we start to lose, and when we lose, we immediately take thyroxine tablets and then our thyroid levels will all be normal, and it is still recommended to check frequently (once a year or so) to adjust the dosage of thyroxine tablets.
So hypothyroidism is temporary (very briefly the United States is currently checking me once a month, so that is hypothyroidism will be found in a month at most) — because you will always be observed by the doctor immediately after the reduction on the replacement thyroxine, after eating and normal people exactly the same ah!!!!
The only drawback is that the amount you need in your body changes with age and life changes, and we have no way to calculate very precisely how much we need, so we have to go to the hospital half a year to see if the amount we are currently taking is appropriate.
Permanent hypothyroidism means not taking any replacement thyroxine tablets at all, but after 131, people basically become hypothyroid, and in the US, they start taking thyroxine tablets after 131, unless you don’t take them (but no one does, right?!). However, American medicine believes that thyroxine tablets are the same as those secreted by the human body, without any side effects, just like the food we eat, compared to the damage done to the body by years of medication can not be compared.
I’ve looked up almost everything in English about this disease and treatment, even if it helps a little. Most areas of the country do not have a comprehensive enough understanding of iodine 131. People here in the US are treated with iodine 131 and then take thyroxine pills, and don’t take it as a disease at all. So I hope we can all be optimistic.
If you are planning to get pregnant in the US (for example, I am 24 years old and plan to get pregnant in 2 years), you will get pregnant only after 131 treatment. It can be said that if you are ready to get pregnant then 131 is the first choice, because taking medication is easy to relapse, especially when pregnant when the body hormone level changes more likely to relapse, the United States almost rarely take medication while pregnant, because doctors believe that taking medication during pregnancy will not make the child deformed, but the fetal intelligence is more or less some impact – although not retarded although a healthy baby but not very smart.
Generally, Iodine 131 can be taken after half a year, but some doctors suggest to take it after 1 year (of course, thyroxine tablets should be taken all the time, thyroxine tablets are not drugs, but only supplement our body’s own production of thyroxine in the form of tablets, which can be taken for life, just like eating for life, without side effects, and very cheap).
Nowadays, more and more people are using iodine 131 in China, and the technology in China has become more mature, especially in big cities where thousands of cases are done every year, so it should be very good if people do it in China.
I found that this is the difference between Chinese and Western cultures and concepts. Chinese people are more conservative, because it is better to take medication to adjust, while if you do Iodine 131, you will be hypothyroid for life, and you will have to take thyroxine replacement for the rest of your life. In fact, eating this is like eating every day, the body can not produce so much thyroxine, so add some externally. In fact, this is a cultural difference. The Chinese would rather be pregnant with drugs than do iodine 131. this depends on personal perception, huh?