Graves disease and life insurance
Common Questions and Answers about Graves disease and life insurance
graves-disease
I have graves disease, but was in remission. Then I had cancer and chemotherapy. My TSH level is hyper again and my other tests normal. The doctors won't say if chemo can activate your graves disease. They do say that a physical or emotional change to my body can trigger it. My thoughts, Cancer and chemotherapy are big time physical and emotional changes.
I was diagnosed with Graves disease 11 years ago. My endo prescribed Methimazole, which I was allergic to, so he told me he didn't want to prescribe me anything else because sometimes the allergy kills the thyroid. It apparently did, because all of a sudden I was hypo and I had to go on synthroid. Since then, I lost my health insurance and got handled by my PCP instead of the endo (cheaper).
It worked, but as i have no health insurance i want to know (because i have been told and read both) Can stress bring on Hyperthyroidism, graves? The car insurance will cover if so, and my life has been nothing but pain and stress since the accident. Very frustrating. The surgery to correct or help my back also will leave me more imobile. So until i am older and not raising children it has to wait. In turn, i live with constant pain.
I was diagnoised with Graves' Disease in 2009. My TSH level was low and my t3 and t4 were high. I had all the symptoms of hyper. It was awful. They did an uptake and found abnormal findings. Was told I needed the RAI-131. Like a good patient I did this and was basically told my only other option was the anti-thyroid meds which could cause many problems and that scared me or surgery and so did that. So I took the radioactive iodine. My gut instinct told me no, but I did anyway.
Graves is an autoimmune disease and unfortunately for life. Controlling whether they raise or suppress is key to beating the symptoms of the disease.
If you are on Levo now - your labs must be abnormal and now lean towards hypoT levels. You would feel like cr@p right now with the swinging patterns you have been on.
"Once Graves.... always Graves" is the saying here. But I am positive your endo or ???
I also have Graves disease and from my understanding you are never "cured", but, once your thyroid is either dead or you have it removed you should no longer be suffering from the symptoms. Except the protruding eyes, that is the only symptom that they can't reverse. That you are going to have to live with for the rest of your life. That's why it's so important to get treated before that happens. I would say that your tiredness is from being perimenopausal.
It should be pointed out that, especially in the US literature, the term ‘hashitoxicosis’ is sometimes used to describe an autoimmune thyroid disease overlap syndrome of Graves’ and Hashimoto’s disease.2 In this article the term is strictly limited to the ‘leakage’ symptoms of active Hashimoto’s disease."
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I've had both Hashi's and Graves antibodies simultaneously but I had been diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis previously.
I just bought another, large, policy from Met Life - and fully disclosed my EDS and had no problems getting insurance. They make me pay a slightly higher premium, but in no way was I denied.
Now that said, I only have EDS Hypermobile Type. If you have the cardiac/vascular form of this disease, that may be a consideration as to why you'd be denied. I have heart and vascular screenings each year for my EDS, even though we know I don't have that form.
Hi allicat and welcome to the forum.
It means that your condition cycles up and down from hypothyroidism to hyperthyroidism.
Look up Dysautonomia -a dysfunction of the autonomous nervous system-related to your condition.
Learn as much as you can, as this condition is not so common and "tricky" to control.
You may want to look at doctors who do not accept insurance, as they may set their fees lower than other doctors.
I am a 25 y/o female diagnosed with hyperthyroidism at 16 and later with Graves Disease and Goiter. I have been on Tapazol along with Atenelol (for the Tachacardia) off and on for the past 9 years with no results. Every doc I see wants to discuss nothing but RAI or surgery. My husband and I have been trying to conceive for a few years with no success. I finally found out that I was pregnant the beginning of last year and made it to 4 months and suffered a miscarriage for no apparent reason.
Conventional treatment options for Graves' disease include:
* Anti-thyroid medication:
In the US:
- Methimazole [brand name Tapazole]
- Propylthiouracil [PTU]
Approximately 30% with Graves' disease will have a remission after prolonged treatment with anti-thyroid drugs.
I really wish that I could explain how hopeless and clueless and sad I felt. Life seemed really cold and dark to me, I became deeply depressed. It seemed like I had no one to turn to.
I remember one day I was sitting down at home on the computer and all of a sudden, my heart started beating so fast.
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