It's no surprise that thyroid patients frequently have menstruation on the mind. That's because thyroid problems can cause all sorts of menstrual irregularities -- heavy periods, more frequent periods, absence of periods, and so on. That's why I wrote about the book Flow back in November of last year when it was first released.
This past week, Flow co-authors Elissa Stein and Susan Kim were featured on ABC's "The View," talking about the book Flow: the Cultural Story of Menstruation. You can watch the segment online here.
I'm not sure how long the "View" episode will be online, so check it out. For more information, see the Flow website, or compare online prices for Flow at Pricegrabber.
Photo: Elissa Stein / Flowthebook.com
I hadn’t had a period in about a year and a half by the time I was diagnosed with thyroid disease. After playing around with both T4 and T3 medications, I finally hit my “sweet spot” and started feeling better – I had more energy, the bruising on my legs went away, etc.
But what really surprised me is when I had a period last month. It was light, but it was the first in three years. This month I got it again and it’s a regular flow like it used to be. I am amazed that low thyroid hormones caused this, even though by most labs my TSH was “normal” and doctors kept telling me it wasn’t a thyroid problem. Ha! It was.
Hi Mary, as a fan of all the tremedous work you do I would first like to say how much I admire your acheivements as a patient advocate and want to say that I do not intend this as a criticism is any way at all.
I know the line in the introduction
“close your eyes guys — check out the View appearance of author Elissa Stein, talking about the book “Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation.” It’s a must read for women. (OK guys, you can look now!)” was intended to be purely humourous. But given that this is read by people from all corners of the world (I’m in Ireland myself), do you think that it might unintentionally contribute to any remaining toboo / stigma which may remain in certain corners of the world.
Mary:
I’m so glad you’ve given “FLOW” a heads-up on your wonderful Thyroid.com site. It’s a terrific book.
I’d like to tell your site visitors about an interview (audio) that I did with Elissa Stein. You may listen to it on our website. Just go to Keeper.com and click on “New: Audio Interviews” on the left. The first one is Elissa’s.
Again, thanks so much for telling people about this book. It covers a topic that is all too often considered taboo! I’m so glad that, thanks to Elissa Stein and Susan Kim, it is finally coming “out of the closet.”
Thanks so much, Mary.
Julia Schopick
Keeper.com