Date：2009-11-2 I’m in the US now, I had hyperthyroidism some time ago and had iodine 131 in the US, I found out that people’s knowledge about iodine 131 is totally different from the US and western medicine, I also met with the best doctors in Peking Union Medical College and 307 Hospital (and my parents’ friends helped me to make a private appointment), so I would like to share my experience with you here, and also give some information to those who want to have iodine 131 treatment. 131 treatment, I hope you will find this information useful. Wang Hongjiao, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Siping First People’s Hospital I was found out to have hyperthyroidism 1 month ago, and I have been taking TAPAZOL for 2 weeks, I did not take any hyperthyroidism (TAPAZOL) before, and I took Iodine 131 capsule 1 week ago. First of all, Iodine 131 can cause hypothyroidism 100%, the most authoritative endocrinologist in China told me so, but Chinese doctors are conservative in their dosage, so some people become hypothyroid very quickly, some start to lose after 10 years, some may lose 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 Americans think that since sooner or later they will have hypothyroidism, 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. Second, 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 is 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. 2. Will I be more likely to get cancer? They told me that 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 is very cheap, which means they will not 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 when 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 met with 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 heavy enough to take the medicine first but did not oppose 131. Most people do not feel anything after taking Iodine 131, 20% of them will have a transient aggravation, I think many people do not know or ignore this and think they are miserable, in fact it is completely normal, usually after 2 weeks they will be fine, or 4 weeks for those who are slower to feel comfortable, but up to 8 weeks. comfortable, but at most 8 weeks should feel very good. I now feel weak, and then quite nauseous, but today there is not much feeling is a little tired after the activity. Well, that’s about it. I hope it’s useful to you. I hope that my words will be useful to you and that you will have more confidence in the treatment. I sincerely hope that you will all get better:) In the United States, we have continuous checkups to see when we start to reduce, and when we do, we will immediately take thyroxine tablets and then our thyroid levels will all be normal. It is still recommended to adjust the dosage of thyroxine tablets frequently (once a year or so). So hypothyroidism is temporary (very short-lived in the United States, I am currently checked once a month, so hypothyroidism will be detected in a month at most) — because you will always be observed by the doctor immediately after the reduction to take replacement thyroid hormone, 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 there is no way to calculate very precisely how much we need, so you have to go to the hospital half a year to see if the amount you 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 United States 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 be said to be completely incomparable. I’ve looked up almost everything in English about this disease and treatment and so on, even if it can help 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 (like me, I’m 24 and I’m planning to get pregnant in 2 years), you are treated with 131 before you get pregnant. It can be said that if you are preparing to get pregnant, 131 is the first choice, because the medication is easy to relapse, especially when the body hormone level changes during pregnancy is more likely to relapse, the United States almost rarely take drugs while pregnant, because doctors believe that taking drugs during pregnancy will not make the child deformed, but the fetal intelligence is more or less affected – although not mentally retarded although a healthy baby but not very smart. Generally, Iodine 131 can be taken after half a year, but some doctors suggest that you should take it after 1 year (of course, thyroxine tablets should be taken all the time, thyroxine tablets are not drugs, they are just tablets to replenish the thyroxine produced by our body. 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 you 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. Chinese people would rather be pregnant with drugs than do iodine 131. this depends on personal perception, huh? Taken from http://csnm.medipromos.com/viewArt.asp?id=458