Symptoms
A small goiter or lump rarely causes local discomfort or noticeable symptoms and is often a chance finding during a routine medical examination. For example, a conspicuous blood value or an ultrasound examination can reveal a nodose goiter. In rare cases, the goiter is so advanced that the enlargement itself causes mechanical complications.
For example, the goiter can lead to a lump, pressure or tightness in the neck, hoarseness, shortness of breath or difficulty swallowing, as well as a tendency to bronchial infections. Some patients complain of increased sensitivity to touch on the neck. In the meantime, the treatment of goiter is so good and early, that in Germany it hardly ever happens that the thyroid gland enlarges so much that a cosmetic problem arises due to a clearly visible goiter.The goiter may also press on or displace other structures, so it is possible that varicose veins of the esophagus (esophageal varices) may form, the trachea may be depressed (tracheal padding) or the superior vena cava may be squeezed, which hinders the flow of blood to the heart (superior venous congestion).
Frequently, so-called accompanying symptoms of struma are caused by the formation of a nodule (struma nodosa). For example, if the goiter is accompanied by hypothyroidism, the typical symptoms of hypothyroidism occur, which require treatment. In this case, fatigue, weight gain and loss of appetite are the main symptoms.
Or the goiter leads to an increased production of thyroid hormones, in which case one can suffer from hyperthyroidism, which can be manifested as sleep disturbance, nervousness, high blood pressure and diarrhoea. If a goiter nodosa or multinodosa causes problems, it must be treated. This can be done as drug therapy or with the help of radioiodine therapy. In some cases thyroid surgery is necessary.
Causes goiter
The most common cause of swelling of the thyroid gland in Germany is iodine deficiency. In this situation the thyroid gland tries to compensate for the reduced hormone production caused by the iodine deficiency by cell division. This leads to an enlargement of the thyroid gland.
It is an enlargement of the thyroid gland, which occurs due to an increased function of the organ. This is for example the case with Graves’ disease, a disease in which the body’s own antibodies attack the thyroid gland and stimulate the hormone producing cells. This term refers to a malignant disease of the thyroid gland. There are four different types of thyroid cancer, which are sometimes treated differently and have different prognoses.
