Nowadays, many people will be found to have a nodule on their thyroid gland during medical checkups. The first thing that comes to mind is whether it will become cancerous. Thyroid experts point out that thyroid nodules are very common in the population, especially among women. However, most of these nodules are benign, and only a very small number of them are cancerous. Therefore, when you find a nodule on the thyroid gland by hand or during a physical examination, you should not be afraid, nor should you let it go, but the key is to identify whether it is benign or malignant, and to do regular review. Thyroid nodules favor women At present, thyroid nodules are becoming more common year after year. Every time a team in a hospital physical examination center, there are always several thyroid nodules detected. And the vast majority of patients are women. It is known that about 70-80% of thyroid nodule patients are women, why is this? In modern society, women are involved in the same competition as men in the workplace, with higher mental stress, but because women are more prone to significant endocrine changes, especially during pregnancy and menopause, and women’s estrogen is closely related to the thyroid gland, hormonal changes tend to stimulate the formation of nodules. Therefore, women are more likely to develop thyroid nodules. Another important reason is the improved detection technology nowadays. In the past, when the thyroid was examined during a physical examination, it was mostly done by surgical palpation. The location of the thyroid gland is relatively hidden and inexperienced doctors often find it difficult to detect small thyroid nodules, so the detection rate of nodules is also very low. Nowadays, thyroid ultrasonography is generally used to detect very small thyroid nodules immediately. In clinical practice, women are more health conscious and participate in medical checkups than men, so they include thyroid ultrasound in their checkups, and smaller thyroid nodules are detected. The majority of thyroid nodules have no obvious symptoms, so most people are detected during physical exams, doctor’s palpation or ultrasound exams. They may be discovered by accidental washing or unintentional touching, or during a CT or MRI examination of the neck for cervical spine disease. Only when the nodule is very large and compresses the surrounding tissues do the corresponding symptoms, such as hoarseness, breath-holding, and difficulty swallowing, appear. Is the size of a thyroid nodule related to its nature? Generally speaking, there is no relationship between the size of thyroid nodules and their nature, but clinically speaking, multiple nodules with small diameter are mostly benign, while single nodules with larger diameter, calcification, and lymph node enlargement with abundant blood flow have a higher incidence of thyroid cancer, with a cancer rate of 10%-20%. At present, there is no gold standard for the diagnosis of thyroid cancer in the industry, and doctors can only rely on experience to determine whether there is a possibility of cancer. For most benign thyroid nodules, surgery is not required. Generally speaking, nodules under 1 cm without calcification can be reviewed every 3-6 months if they are not combined with hyperthyroidism and have no symptoms of pressure. During the review, look for significant growth of the nodule (significant growth means an increase of more than 50% in the size of the nodule), and pay special attention to the presence of symptoms and signs that indicate nodule malignancy (such as hoarseness, difficulty in breathing/swallowing, nodule fixation, enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, etc.), or calcification. However, some patients are psychologically stressed and always worry about cancer, so they request surgery with the idea of “it is better to kill a thousand by mistake than to spare one”. In the past, it was common to see women with a “suicide” scar on their necks, which could be recognized at a glance without wearing high-necked clothes, and was quite unattractive. Nowadays, in order to improve the aesthetics, a cosmetic surgery that starts from the hidden part of the body is also commonly performed. Although on the outside it looks like there is no too obvious scar, or even no scar on the body surface, the path of the surgery is still long under the body surface, so it can’t be said to be minimally invasive yet, but only that it meets the aesthetic requirements of most people. How to prevent long thyroid nodules in life 1. Avoid insufficient or excessive iodine intake. The thyroid gland is sensitive to iodine, which has the functions of uptake, concentration, synthesis, reserve and secretion. In daily life, the iodine content in seafood should also be noted. 2. The iodine content of sea fish is 163-3180μg/kg, with an average of 832μg/kg; the iodine content of shrimp and shellfish is 308-1300μg/kg, with an average of 798μg/kg, dried seaweed 362400μg/kg and nori 43230μg/kg. Therefore, the intake of seafood should not be too high, according to the recommendation of the Chinese Nutrition Society, 50-100g of fish and shrimp per day is appropriate. -100 grams is appropriate. 3, avoid tension, anxiety, sadness, insomnia. The need for thyroxine in these cases will be greatly increased, and if the load is exceeded, the thyroid gland will be prone to lesions. 4. The need for thyroxine also increases during pregnancy. During pregnancy, the thyroid gland and the levels of thyroid hormones it produces change, and thyroid disorders such as hypothyroidism may occur. It is recommended that thyroid function be checked at least once when pregnancy is confirmed.