The Frequency of Hypothyroidism in Middle Aged Women Suffering From Headache in Diyala Governorate

Abstract

Background:The previous researches show that the hypothyroidism occurs in approximately 1–2% of women and 0.1% of men and is characterized by a TSH level above the normal reference range and a T4 level below the reference range. This percentage indicate that: women have ten times the risk of hypothyroidism as men, with the difference became significant above the age of 34 years. Hypothyroidism may very easily be missed due to the similarity between the symptoms of hypothyroidism and that of menopause.Many middle-age women complained from headache whether it is tension headache or migraine and since headache is one of the symptoms of hypothyroidism, so there will be many cases of misdiagnosed hypothyroidism. This study estimates thyroid function test for those women to shed a light for the frequency of hypothyroid women.

Objective: To current study screening middle- aged women suffering from headache by thyroid function test to treat these women properly and not only treat the headache as a separate complain

Patients and Methods: Three hundred (300) women aged between 35 -55 years with headache included in this study, their chief complain is only headache, they have no other medical conditions or chronic diseases. They were divided in to two groups; the first group aged from (35- 45 years), while the second one aged from (46-55 years). Three hundred (300) healthy women aged between (35-55 years) are screened for TFT (thyroid function test) as a control group were divided in to two groups; the first group aged from (35-45 years) while the second group aged between (46-55 years). Thyroid function test (TSH, T3, and T4) were done for all groups.

Results: There are 53(17.6%) women in patients group have high TSH with low T3 and T4 which means that they have overt hypothyroidism and 17(5.7%) women in the same group have only high TSH which means that they have (subclinical) hypothyroidism, while 230 (76.7%) women have normal thyroid function test. This means that: the total number of hypothyroid women is 70 (23.3%) which is regarded as high percentage.

Conclusion:There is a high percentage of women suffering from headache having hypothyroidism so thyroid function test should be done for all middle-aged women with from headache.