Episode 15: Why Do Thyroid Issues Impact Women More than Men?
The American Thyroid Association estimates that five to eight women are affected with Hashimoto’s for every one man. The ATA also estimates that one in eight women will be affected with Hashimoto’s or another thyroid disorder at some point in their lives.
So, if you’re a woman, and you probably are if you're listening to this podcast… and you’re not CURRENTLY dealing with thyroid issues… then there’s a good chance that you will be dealing with a thyroid issue. Which also means that it's a good time to start making some shifts to have that NOT be the case.
But the bigger question is WHY?! Why does it seem like we all know a woman (or we are that woman) who has thyroid issues?
In this episode, we’re talking about some of the reasons (or, more aptly put- theories) why women deal with thyroid disease at a much higher rate than men… and of course, I have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today.. to work towards reducing that statistic.
Glad you're here,
Sarah
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
Take the Quizzes: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Products and Tools to Support Your Thyroid Naturally: bit.ly/thyroid-tools
Disclaimer: Information shared on this podcast and any referenced websites are not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or treatment plan for any medical condition. I’m sharing my educated opinions & experience but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis and we always recommend you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and practitioners, and take full responsibility for any health & medical choices you make.
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Want to read this episode instead? Here’s the transcript!
So the American Thyroid Association estimates that at about five to eight women are affected with Hashimoto's thyroiditis for every one. They also estimate that one in eight women will be affected with Hashimoto's thyroiditis or some other thyroid disease at some point in their lives. What? So if you're a woman, and you probably are, if you're listening to this podcast and you're not currently dealing with thyroid issues, which you probably are, if you're listening to this podcast, even still, if you're, if you are woman who is listening right now, then there is a really good statistical possibility that you are going to be dealing with a thyroid issue at some point in your life, which also means it's a good time to start making some shifts to have that not be the case. But the bigger issue, the bigger question that this always brings up for me is why, why does it seem like we all know a woman or we are that woman who has thyroid issues?
So in this episode, we are talking about some of the reasons, or more aptly some of the theories as to why women deal with thyroid issues at a much higher rate than men. And of course, I'll have a few simple shifts that you can do to start making an impact in this area today to work on reducing that statistic. So grab that notebook and a pen and let's get started with today's episode. Before we jump in, I wanna point you towards the quizzes that I've created to help you assess your self, especially some of those more subjective symptoms that often go with hypothyroid disease and so, or that often go with hypothyroidism. And so the quizzes that I've created, there's quite a few. There's one just specifically looking for looking at your hypothyroid symptoms. There's one focus specifically on toxic load and your liver function.
And there's another one that focuses on adrenal stress and any adrenal dysfunction you might be having. So I'm gonna mention some of these in the episode today, but I wanna point you that direction right at the outset. So you can head to bit.ly/thyroid-tools and you'll see all the quizzes right there that you can take. And they're really short, really quick. But the intention is that you'll be able to look at some of the more subjective symptoms and then determine if this is an area where you really should dial in some of your energy and efforts and working on peeling back those layers of resolving your symptoms. So you can find all of the quizzes at bit.ly/thyroid-tools. And those will hopefully help you to start making some shifts to start feeling good as you move through your days.
Welcome to the Natural Thyroid Fix. I'm Sarah Geisinger, a holistic lifestyle and nutrition coach and former hypothyroid mom who has reversed her thyroid disease using a natural approach to thyroid health. Trust me, I know what it feels like to move through the life in a brain fog, needing a nap by mid-afternoon and constantly be cleaning the hair you've lost outta the shower drain. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you're here, I bet you do. So if you're ready to reject the notion that this tired hypothyroid life is as good as it gets, and start implementing simple natural strategies to live a vibrant symptom-free life, then this is the podcast for you. Let's dive into today's show.
Hello there. So this topic is something that is kind of like a curiosity. It's the the sort of thing that I get asked all the time because my work is focused largely on helping women who deal with hypothyroid symptoms to resolve them in a natural way, peel back the layers and get to the point where they're feeling symptom free. And so that's like the promise land, right? And by and large, I, well, I I focus on women because I work with women for a long time. I was just kind of helping anybody who had thyroid issues. And what I found is a couple things. One, I found that the majority of people that I was helping were women. There were a couple men sprinkled in there. There have been, and if you're, if you're a man that's tuning in welcome, um, you know, this information is relevant for you.
But the reality is that the statistics continue to bear out that women are more often affected by thyroid disease, and additionally, women are more likely to have autoimmune disease. The, the, the statistics just demonstrate that. And so that started me down the path of, of really dialing in my education, my energy and efforts on helping women specifically. And the reason I got there was because statistically speaking, there are just more women dealing with thyroid issues. But the big question that I am curious about, I have been curious about, and I often have people ask me, is, why, why is there such a difference in why are there more women who are impacted by thyroid issues than men? And so we're gonna talk about that today. Um, I have a couple things cuz some of the theories, a lot of these theories are, you know, they're connected to research, but they are just that, they're theories as to why that is the case.
And then I actually have a, another episode with what I think is a super cool, um, theory on why it specifically addresses women too. But I'm, today I'm gonna be talking about, um, the theories that are kind of the, the most standard view as to why women are dealing with thyroid issues. So, like I mentioned at the beginning, the American Thyroid Association or the a t a, they estimate that five to eight women are affected with Hashimoto's for every one man who's affected with Hashimoto's. Um, and again, if you are new here, then, um, I oftentimes talk specifically about Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which Hashimoto's thyroiditis is the autoimmune disease, which is the most common reason for having hypothyroid symptoms, for being determined to be hypothyroid. That's kind of like a descriptor, but it doesn't necessarily answer the question as to why it's not a, a real great diagnosis.
Uh, even though we, we kind of treat it like that. But Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease that most people who are hypothyroid actually have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which means their body, their immune system is producing antibodies that are attacking the thyroid. And that is what is causing the drop in thyroid hormone in your body. Uh, that is up somewhere in the neighborhood of about 90% of people who are hypothyroid are actually, actually have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, even if they've not been diagnosed. I, I just kind of use those terms interchangeably simply because the research shows us that even if you've not been diagnosed as having Hashimoto's, having autoimmune thyroid disease, there's a real good chance that if you are hypothyroid, that you do at some level. Anyway, that's a, you know, a little tangent, but I just like to make sure that I explain that, uh, because I, I get those questions.
So I get questions a lot about why, why do women have higher rates of Hashimoto's? Why do women have higher rates of autoimmune disease? And, um, this is, this is particularly, I get this question because in a lot of instances, um, some of the things that I teach and I talk about, they affect both men and women equally, right? In a lot of, in a lot of ways. So, for example, one of the, the main triggers of Hashimoto's that I talk about is our, uh, our environment. The fact that we live in an environment where there are way more chemicals, where our livers can get overburdened, that we can, that can struggle to convert, uh, inactive thyroid hormone into active thyroid hormone. And that is be, can oftentimes be because the liver is just congested. Well, aren't men just as exposed to toxins in the environment as, as women?
Yes. Sort of. We'll talk about that. Additionally, stress, you know, we all live in the same stressful world. We all live in the world where there are, there's social media and stressful news and pandemics, <laugh> and family members that irritate us who are texting us, or social media posts that drive us nuts. Anyway, we all live in that kind of world, right? Both men and women. So sort of, I'll, I'll talk about that too. But most, uh, autoimmune conditions in general do have a higher incidence rate in women as compared to men. And those include things like, uh, rheumatoid arthritis, Ms. Hashimoto's is another one. What else? Oh, lupus is another one that is, has a higher rate of incidents in women than it does to men. And so I wanna talk just a little bit about some of the theories as to why that is.
And also then what we can do to reduce the, reduce our, well, if you're someone who already is part of that statistic to start working backwards, uh, resolving some of your symptoms, or if you're not, um, what are some of the lifestyle shifts that you can do to sort of protect yourself, um, and help yourself to not become one of those statistics? Or maybe if you have children or, or family, what are things that you can shift in the life of your family that are going to make sure that future generations are not, these statistics are not true of them as well. So that's something that I feel really passionate about. But if we dunno what the theories are, what some of the reasons are, then we can't know how to, uh, work backwards from there. So the first theory as to why autoimmune disease, why thyroid disease impacts women more than men is hormones, straight up hormones, <laugh>.
So female hormones are, uh, oftentimes thought to play a role in developing autoimmune thyroid conditions specifically. So things like pregnancy, puberty, perimenopause, basically, I mean, we have these, all these opportunities as women to have these fluctuations in our hormones due to major life events, right? <laugh>. And so these are three, these pregnancy, puberty, perimenopause, those are three of the most common times in a woman's life that thyroid disease can actually occur. It can get started. And this, especially things like estrogen and prolactin. Um, some, you know, two of those two sex hormones, they have an important role in modulating the immune system. And that right in and of itself could be the thing that impacts autoimmune disease. Estrogen can also change, it can change the requirements of the thyroid hormone, and that can result in autoimmune issues. There can be the present presence of nutrient deficiencies can cause changes in, uh, hormone fluctuations and something like prolactin, that prolactin is released by breastfeeding women and it helps to promote milk production.
So obviously at that time in a woman's life, then she can have this shift in hormones, and that is ele, it's also elevated in women with Hashimoto's, even when they're not breastfeeding. And so this has been connected. An increase in prolactin has been connected to an increase in thyroid antibodies. And those increase in thyroid antibodies means you have more little antibodies going in, attacking your thyroid, causing damage to the thyroid, and making it difficult for the thyroid to produce the level of thyroid hormone that is necessary. And then you end up hypothyroid. So women have a higher risk of developing Hashimoto's, which lands you in hypothyroid land, and also Graves disease, which lands you into hyperthyroid land having too much thyroid. And they have a higher risk of developing those two things in the couple years following, having a baby, giving birth. And this is called something called microm microm <laugh>.
And it proposes that this idea is that there are, because we have fetal cells in our body that are, you know, duplicating and producing and growing a little baby, that is one of the things that those, those fetal cells actually remain in the mother's thyroid gland, which causes an immune response because the body, it's, they're not supposed to be there after a time. So that's interesting that, that is, that that then can demonstrate that after a couple years after giving birth, women are at a much higher risk of developing these thyroid diseases. So these are, these are just, again, theories because what there's, there are some research that shows that literally all women who've had a baby have those fetal cells in their thyroid. And so that can, you know, it can maybe add like a risk factor, but it probably doesn't describe the entire trigger, but it can be a factor.
And so that's, I mean, there's not much we can do about that, right? I mean, it, it, if you wanna have babies, then you just, we, I mean, shoot as a mom, don't you accept all sorts of risks, <laugh>, we just kind of, it's part of the deal. And so that's just, you know, another one of them. I think that what we can do in that space is to be really aware of, um, having, of doing everything, everything that we can to have healthy pregnancies, to ha to rest, to nourish ourselves, all of those sorts of things. To have healthy pregnancies, to lower our risk. But it's just part of the deal. As women, we have these seasons where we have hormone fluctuations because of things like having babies. And that is, you know, there's not a ton you can do about it except to support your body during that season really well.
So that's the first theory, the second theory, which I think is really a good theory. The second theory about why thyroid disease impacts women more than men is personal care products. Just really, I guess that's not a good way to put it, cuz it, well, increased toxic load would be a better way to describe that theory. So this is basically the idea that the, these different rates of autoimmune disease and thyroid disease between men and women is because women are more exposed to toxic chemicals on the regular than men. And so this comes down to one, yes, personal care products. Women use far more personal care products. It's estimated that women use about 12 personal care products a day. And in those 12 personal care products, they're exposed to 168 different chemicals from those products alone each day. On the flip side, men on average use about six personal care products that only contain about 85 chemical ingredients.
There's a, so there's a big difference there in the usage of personal care products and the exposure to chemicals. Kind of another layer of that is e especially, and this this goes for if you are using conventional sold off the shelf, not really any intention by the company to reduce, to be more, you know, low tox, chemical free, um, not including fragrances, those sorts of things, if you're using just straight up conventional personal care products, that's what we're talking about, um, which is why it's important. And I have a whole episode on how your personal care products can really be impacting your thyroid. You can head back to listen to that episode. It's why it's really important, especially to, to make shifts from conventional personal care products to more non-toxic, low toxic kind of personal care products. Anything that we put on our skin gets absorbed into our skin.
And so that makes a really great <laugh> very effective delivery system for chemicals to get into our bodies, which is not great. And in a lot of times those sorts of products, they, they're not only passed into our bloodstream and circulated through our bodies, but as women, we also, there's personal care products, tests that have been done on women that then those same personal care products, the chemicals were found in their children or their babies, um, as a result of them using them. So that's really, they're really, really transfer well through the system, which is unfortunate, but also important to address it. Okay? When, when products are ingested, like when we eat them, that's kind of like a direct line for the liver to work to make them less toxic before they enter into the bloodstream. And that's, uh, oftentimes called the first pass effect.
And that means that only a small amount of the actual chemical, if you're ingesting it, is getting into the actual bloodstream in, into the circulation system. But things that we apply to the skin, they sort of bypass the liver and go directly into circulation. And so that is why we want to be very careful about the personal care products that we're putting on our skin after the, after the fact, they kind of go to the liver after working through the circulatory system and having an impact there. First they, they can end up in the liver later and then be moved out after they've already kind of done some damage elsewhere, especially endocrine disrupting chemicals when they are applied directly to the skin, such as things found in personal care products. Again, I have a whole episode on this specifically, but they can increase estrogen, uh, dominance, which causes, uh, higher likelihood of autoimmunity.
And the same thing applies with anything that can in increase estrogen. And so using things like lipstick, it can be connected to having, um, autoimmune issues later down the road simply because of the chemicals that are used in conventional lipstick. Be aware of that. However, this is again, a piece of the puzzle. I'm always talking about pieces of the puzzle. So we've got women having these kind of life events and like the cycles of being a woman where our hormones fluctuate and change that can put us at a higher risk. We are more likely to be exposed to chemicals. So yes, that's another reason that we are at a higher risk as women. And then a third theory is genetics. Genetics being the primary reason that women potentially have more thyroid disease than men. And this is again, a theory because this comes kind of in two different, different forms.
There's a lot of studies that show that people with Hashimoto's that they are more likely to have thyroid disease because their family history has thyroid disease. But there are some interesting studies that have been more recently done where only about 50% of twins, like identical twins, who, you know, they would have the same genetics presented with thyroid antibodies, meaning like, it's not necessarily, they weren't the same. Only one of the twins, only half of the twins had thyroid antibodies. And so that is an interesting thing. So it's not, doesn't mean that the genetics is the only factor defining factor. It's, I I have always said that genetics sort of loads the gun. So you could be predisposed to having some thyroid issues. Your, your mom may have had thyroid issues, your family, other family members may have had thyroid issues. So that means, you know, maybe your genetics, maybe you're more likely you're predisposed to it, but it's the environmental factors that actually pull the trigger.
And the research is super well established regarding those environmental factors being the things that kind of flip the switch to thyroid disease and other autoimmune conditions to people, especially in people who are genetically predisposed. This is also for me, just on a personal note, this is why I am incredibly intentional about not just making these lifestyle shifts for me individually as someone who has been diagnosed as having a thyroid disease, but I make these entire lifestyle shifts for my whole family. My whole family is living low tox using cleaning products that are low tox, using personal care products that are low tox and fragrance free. And as chem free as I can get 'em, my whole family is eating foods that kind of, um, are more like in line with a paleo diet. We, we li limit foods that are known to be highly inflammatory.
It's not just because we're like some crazy health people. It's because I know I have four children who are genetically more predisposed to having an autoimmune thyroid disease. Three of them are girls. And so I know that they're genetically more predisposed to have a autoimmune thyroid disease. And so I wanna stack the deck in terms of making lifestyle and environmental choices that make it so that trigger doesn't get pulled. The gun may be loaded for them having a genetically predisposed, you know, cells, little cells, <laugh> that are more likely to have a thyroid disease. So I wanna do everything I can in my power to make sure that even if that gun is loaded, the trigger's not pulled by environmental choices and factors. So anyway, that's just a little aside there, but the research is super well established about environmental factors being the thing that causes the trigger.
And those sorts of factors can include things like excessive iodine, um, having bacterial or viral infections, having hormone imbalances, exposure to chemicals and toxins, high levels of inflammation. Those are things that are known to be like, sort of like the lifestyle choices, um, the environmental factors. One thing that I thought was super interesting, uh, and just preparing for this and, and digging through some of the research, you've probably heard of the Chernobyl incident, which is a chemical meltdown of a, uh, well, it was nuclear fallout of the Chernobyl power plant. And there was a study done of children who ex were exposed to that nuclear fallout of the Chernobyl explosion. And what they found was 80% of people who were exposed had thyroid, had developed thyroid antibodies while only 17% of the genetically similar children. This is in a village in Ukraine, by the way, the only 17% of genetically similar children that were at a, a little bit further away from Chernobyl had antibodies.
And so the antibodies were found in both, both boys and girls, but the ones who lived right in Chernobyl. So they had similar, you know, similar genetics, similar, um, like backgrounds, family history, all that. But they lived, one group lived a little bit in a village a little bit further away, the other lived like right nearby. And 80% of the ones who lived right nearby had developed thyroid antibodies, had developed Hashimoto's antibody, the activity that was attacking the thyroid simply because of being exposed in such close proximity to that Chernobyl explosion. So genetics does play a role, obviously, right? But environmental factors are much more impactful in determining who develops thyroid conditions. So what, what does trigger Hashimoto's? Um, I totally believe that there's merit to all of these theories above, especially when you think about how they impact how women and men are different.
So even if women and men are living in the same world, they're experiencing similar stressors, they're experiencing similar environment, mental factors, there's certain things that aren't the same, right? Like men are not having hormonal fluctuations, they're not not going through pregnancies, they're not, uh, you know, making all these other choices. There's certainly merit to each of these different theories, but they don't necessarily give us the full picture of why Hashimoto's developed in the first place. And that's be because it's a combination. It's a combination of our genetics, of nutrient depletions of, uh, food sensitivities and the inflammation that comes with it, continuously exposing ourselves to foods that we're sensitive to and impaired ability to manage stress, not getting great sleep impaired ability to move toxins appropriately out of our body so our liver gets bogged down in them, having leaky gut and possibly dealing with infections.
All of these things in combination, especially when pieced together with something like, oh, a pregnancy plus all of these things, or oh, uh, nu meltdown at a nuclear power plant, plus all of these things that is, those can be really important factors. The whole, all of those pieces come together to make the full picture of what actually triggers Hashimoto's. So I wanna give you a few things that you can do today to just start moving the needle in how you feel. If you're someone who's dealing with thyroid issues, then I obviously, I would love for you to start moving in a direction toward becoming symptom free. Now, these aren't gonna be like all you need to do or maybe make massive impacts, but the deal is with approaching thyroid in really any health issue from a holistic perspective is, are the winds come as a culmination of small steps combined together to create a massive impact.
So, uh, though triggers can vary from kind of person to person here, there, there's a series of protocols, a series of things that are known to really support the various aspects and, um, of what can cause and exacerbate hypothyroid symptoms. So the first thing that I would encourage you to do is support the liver. So this, in this modern world, this modern crazy world that we live in, we are exposed to way more and unprecedented number of toxins every day. We breathe them in through the air, we absorb 'em through our skin when we use personal care products or even cleaning products, we ingest them through foods we eat. If we're not eating organic, we consume fluoride from water sources, just when we drink water, um, any number of things. And so we can just start to begin the healing process by paying attention to the hidden toxins that are already, that we're exposed to and starting to make some shifts away from that.
So we can remove potentially triggering foods, we can add supportive foods in, we can make swaps in our cleaning products and our personal care products to non-toxic options. And you can support gentle detoxification. I wanna point you back to episode three of this podcast where it's all about how your liver impacts your thyroid, and I give even more suggestions on how to specifically dive into this issue. And if you're not sure that toxic load is really a big deal for you, I would encourage you to head to bit.ly/thyroid-tools and take my toxic load and liver quiz to see if this is a big deal for you. If some of your symptoms are kind of connected directly back to what's happening in your liver and taking steps to support your liver, that can go a long way to supporting your thyroid.
Okay? The second thing that I would encourage you to do is to work on restoring your adrenals. And so your adrenals, if you have not heard of your adrenals, I again would point you back to episode five of this podcast, how your adrenals impact your thyroid. But it's estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of people who deal with hypothyroid symptoms are also dealing with some level of adrenal dysfunction. And that can look like insomnia, just being generally tired, uh, being dizzy, especially when you stand up having low blood sugar. If you getting that hangry feeling, uh, having anxiety and stress and overwhelm, those can be symptoms of having adrenal issues. And we can do something about that. We can support our stress response by making, um, by making stress management of our daily lives. Not just saying, oh, I'll go on a vacation and that's when I'll relax.
Nope. We need to have, uh, practices built into our every day where we can relax and calm down and let our nervous system be kind of <laugh> chill, right? So whether that's going for a walk, doing yoga, talking to a friend, putting on loud music and dancing, um, taking a couple deep breaths, walking barefoot in your yard, all kinds of options on how to manage stress. But you need to learn how to de-stress and you need to learn how to do it every day as part of your routine. I would also encourage you that if this, if you've got the stress piece under control, I would encourage you to look next at balancing your blood sugar, increasing protein, increasing fats, um, decreasing things like sugar and carbs that are gonna spike your blood sugar when not eaten in combination with fat and protein. So those are my my quick tips, and again, I'll point you back to episode five where you're, uh, you can specifically listen to all of the details about how your adrenals impact your thyroid and some more detailed, more detailed plans on how to address that.
And the third thing that I will suggest for you is that you pay a little attention to what's happening in your gut. For most people who have hypothyroid symptoms, having leaky gut or intestinal permeability is a factor. And the research shows that intestinal permeability, it can, it, it is almost always present in anybody who has autoimmune disease, including Hashimoto's. So by taking a look at our gut health and restoring some balance in our microbiome and in our intestines, we can start healing from within. And so the way that you need to do that is to figure out what foods are causing problems for you. Some food sensitivities, um, add in digestive enzymes. I have my favorite digestive enzymes linked at the, um, the little shop page at, bit.ly/thyroid-tools. And also my favorite probiotics because balancing gut flora is really important and then also nourishing our gut.
So again, I have some other episodes that you can go back to for balancing the gut, but that is an important piece too. And something that you could choose, maybe if you chose one thing from each of those areas, liver, adrenals, and gut to start doing today, you would be making progress in moving the needle. And that's what we wanna do is move the needle. Okay, so there we have it. So I wanna encourage you to head to the, uh, either the show notes or go to bit.ly/thyroid-tools and grab one of those quizzes. There's a couple there, the adrenal, the liver, the hypothyroid symptoms that are gonna help you figure out, uh, maybe a good place to start. And you can also, there's a link there on that same link, bit doley slash thyroid dash tools where I have just recommended personal care products if you need to start making some swaps in that area.
My favorite digestive, um, all sorts of tools for starting to move towards, uh, healing, which is the direction we wanna go. So that's at bit.ly/thyroid-tools. Take the quizzes, uh, and start making some simple swaps today. So I hope you're able to apply some of these things and start making small shifts towards feeling healthy and good because I am a firm believer that when you do it that way, when you make those small little shifts and you focus on doable lifestyle shifts, that living a symptom free life is totally possible. And I want that for you.
Real quick before you go, if this show has helped you in some way, then I know that it'll help others too. So please head over to iTunes, subscribe, and then leave a review so that more women can find health and healing too. And do you know that you can have an incredible impact on the women who deal with thyroid issues in your circle? Yep, that's right. All you have to do is take a screenshot of this podcast, tag me at natural thyroid dot fix and post it in your stories. Let's light a path for all the other hypothyroid mamas looking for hope and healing, and to just feel like themselves again, I'll look forward to connecting with you over on Instagram until next time on the Natural Thyroid Fix.