Is it normal to have an enlarged thyroid

It is roughly the shape of a butterfly. You cannot usually see or feel a normal thyroid gland. If the thyroid gland enlarges, it causes a swelling in the neck which you can see - a goitre. The thyroid gland makes thyroid hormones - called thyroxine T4 and triiodothyronine T3. These hormones are carried around the body in the bloodstream.

T4 and T3 help to keep the body's functions the metabolism working at the correct pace. Many cells and tissues in the body need T4 and T3 to keep them working correctly. This means that the entire thyroid gland is larger than normal. The thyroid gland feels smooth but is larger than normal. Note : you can also develop an overactive or underactive thyroid without having a goitre.

When you have a goitre, a doctor will usually do some blood tests to check if you are making too much or too little thyroxine T4 or triiodothyronine T3.

The thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland situated in front of the windpipe. It is responsible for producing and secreting hormones that regulate growth and metabolism. These do not involve inflammation or any detriment to thyroid function, produce no symptoms, and often have no obvious cause.

Some people experience a small amount of swelling. Others can have considerable swelling that constricts the trachea and causes breathing problems. An enlarged thyroid does not necessarily mean that the thyroid gland is working incorrectly. A person with a goiter may have a thyroid gland that is:. Goiters are more common in females than males, especially after menopause.

Goiters and thyroid disease are generally more common after the age of In most cases, the only symptom of a goiter is a swelling in the neck. The swelling may be large enough to feel with the hand. The degree of swelling and the severity of symptoms produced by the goiter depend on the individual. The most common cause of goiters outside the United States is a lack of iodine in the diet. The thyroid needs iodine to create thyroid hormones, which regulate metabolism.

A lack of iodine is uncommon in the U. As iodine is less commonly found in plants, vegan diets may lack sufficient iodine. This is less of a problem for vegans who live in countries where manufacturers add iodine to salt.

Hypothyroidism is the result of an underactive thyroid gland. The thyroid gland produces certain hormones, the main component of which is iodine.

They are responsible for a normal metabolism. If the thyroid does not get enough iodine, it cannot produce enough hormones. To compensate for the hormone deficiency, the thyroid gland is stimulated in its growth, forms new gland cells and enlarges. On average, the thyroid gland has a normal volume of up to 18 ml. We speak of an enlarged thyroid gland when its total volume exceeds 25 ml in men and 18 ml in women.

Enlargement may affect the whole tissue or may originate from single or multiple nodes in the thyroid gland. In addition to the sheer increase in size or nodular change, there are also often accompanying dysfunctions. Scintigraphy — an examination in which weakly radioactive iodine is administered into the veins — reveals the ability to form hormones.

As a rule, these are benign changes. The CT scan will show areas that the thyroid goiter extends and prepare the expert thyroid surgeon their safe and effective approach to remove all of the goiter gland and spare all other structures. Even though a thyroid goiter may extend extensively below the sternum breast bone and go well into the chest, these goiters can almost routinely be removed through a relatively straight forward low collar incision in the lower neck.

If your surgeon is telling you that they need to "split your chest" or "open your sternum", make sure that you have identified a highly experience thyroid surgeon. Again, such approaches are almost never actually required. We know there is a lot of information on the site and it can be hard to take it all in. If you have a question for our surgeons, or for our office, we would be happy to help.

Let us know your question s and we will forward it to our surgeons or to our office, and get back to you as soon as we can. Corona Virus Update: Friday November 12, We are seeing patients and operating at full capacity. In Tampa, the trends of infections and hospitalizations continue to decrease and become more and more favorable and we continue to take every precaution possible. We screen every patient for the virus and since we only perform thyroid operations, all of our patients are either out-patient or a minimal stay in an isolated non-Covid 19 unit in the hospital.

All our surgeons and nurses have been vaccinated. We take very special measures to protect our patients from the general population of our hospital and continue to make this the safest place in the US to have your operation.

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Our hotels are ready for you and VERY clean. Updates will be posted here as needed but we are open to serve you very safely. We have a new home! This is part of our tremendous growth plans which include a partnership with Hospital Corporation of American to build a new hospital in Tampa, The Hospital for Endocrine Surgery. Until the new hospital is finished, our world-famous Center continues to flourish in brand-new state of the art facilities at the Medical Center of Trinity dedicated to the care of our thyroid patients.

Our great team of doctors, nurses, ultrasonographers, and techs have made the move with us to continue the exceptional care we provide our patients from around the world.

We have also added scarless robotic thyroid surgery as an option for some patients. We look forward to taking great care of you in our new home. Accredited with an A rating by the Better Business Bureau. Goiter means "big thyroid".