April 2003 -- While many patients with Graves' disease, and some with Hashimoto's, have some thyroid eye disease symptoms, no more than 5% have severe ophthalmopathy. Experts aren't clear as to why this is the case, however they suspect that it may be that severe ophthalmopathy and remain to be elucidated. One possible explanation is that nonsevere ophthalmopathy and non-severe ophthalmopathy are separate conditions, or that additional variables contribute to the severity of the condition. This raises the question: is Graves' disease preventable?

Non-preventable risk factors include:

• Genetic susceptibility
• Age -- peak age for women is 40-44 and 60-64, and 5 years later in men
• Gender -- Men have a slightly higher prevalence, particularly older men