Hashimoto's: For Years I Thought I Just Had to Put Up With It

Friends, we learn so much from your stories, and we realized we'd never actually talked about Hashimoto's here before. Daniela has had Hashimoto's for many, many years, along with a long list of symptoms that have often made life hard. In 2025, she found a new way of living with the disease. Here's her story: 

Dear Daniela, you have Hashimoto's. Can you explain what that actually is?

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease, which means the immune system turns against the body's own tissue. In this case, it's the thyroid. An inflammation, set off by a misdirected immune response, gradually destroys the thyroid tissue. Hashimoto's is the most common cause of an underactive thyroid, which can cause a whole range of very different symptoms.

When did you first notice symptoms, and how long did it take to get a diagnosis?

I was diagnosed at 15, which is unusually young. Most people don't get a diagnosis until later in life. I didn't have any obvious complaints back then, at least none that my parents or I could read correctly. Looking back, though, there were signs, like my very early first period at age nine.

Hashimoto's was found in my case because it runs in my family. The doctor recommended testing the daughters too, and that's how I was diagnosed. But nobody explained anything. I was simply told to take a pill on an empty stomach every morning. That was it. As a teenager, it was hard to understand why this treatment mattered and to stick with it consistently.

How has Hashimoto's shaped your life over the past years?

It has followed me through different stages of life in very different ways. By the end of my teens, I was struggling with strong mood swings, weight gain, and very painful periods. But back then, nobody connected those problems to my thyroid. For a long time, I just thought that was “how I am.”

It wasn't until my mid-20s, when I wanted to start a family, that I began to look more closely at the disease. My changed hormone levels made it harder to get pregnant. It quickly became clear how many symptoms I had accepted as “normal” over the years: fatigue, depressive phases, lack of drive, constipation, trouble concentrating. A radiologist who took me seriously and treated me as a whole person brought the first real improvement. During that time, I was lucky enough to have three healthy children, which is not something you can take for granted with Hashimoto's.

But after the pregnancies and the breastfeeding months, my hormones got thrown off balance again. The symptoms got worse, my weight went past 220 pounds (100 kilos), and my mood swings weighed heaviest on our family life. My medication dose kept being raised, with no effect.

So what did you do?

At the end of 2023, out of frustration, I stopped taking the standard medication. At first I felt better, but after a few months I crashed hard, both physically and emotionally. I cried for days, couldn't sleep, had no drive, and negative thoughts were my constant companions. Physically, things got harder too: water retention, more weight gain, joint pain.

The turning point came at the end of 2024. In a women's magazine, I read about a Heilpraktiker (a practitioner of alternative medicine, a recognized profession in Germany) who specializes in thyroid disease, and he described my problems almost exactly. I drove 93 miles (150 kilometers) to his practice, and for the first time I felt truly understood. Since then I've been taking what are called bioidentical thyroid hormones, which my body can use directly. The core of my problem was probably that my body couldn't convert the hormones I'd been taking.

For me personally, this was the end of a long story of suffering. I sleep well again, I've lost weight, and the mood swings have eased a lot. I look at life positively again.

How have the people around you reacted to your illness? A lot of people don't know much about it…

Many people, especially women, know Hashimoto's by name. But the common assumption is, “You just take a pill and then everything's fine.” For many people who have it, it's far more complicated than that.

The truth is that Hashimoto's is often a silent battle, invisible to outsiders but powerful on the inside. A lot of people don't see it as a “real” illness. And I understand that. Even I needed many years to understand that my symptoms weren't my imagination or a character flaw.

You've lost quite a few pounds this past year. How did you do it?

Yes, I lost 44 pounds (20 kilos), going from class II obesity to “just” overweight. I think the biggest factor was changing my thyroid medication. It gave me new energy. My hunger signals changed, and I can read my body's needs better.

On top of that, I gradually shifted to a diet with more protein and kept an eye on my calories. No forbidden foods. I still love pizza, sweets, and the occasional fast food.

I also move a lot more now. Less joint pain and more energy make that easy. Stairs instead of the elevator, walking a stop or two instead of riding, YouTube workouts when I have a few minutes. Lots of small building blocks that add up to a lot.

Your work life has changed quite a bit too. Tell us about it.

I earned a business administration degree while raising the kids, as my second professional qualification. Then Covid threw my career plans into chaos. After my third child, I ended up working in the social services field. That experience shaped me, but it wasn't an easy job, and on top of my health problems, it added a work-related strain.

That's why I'm so happy that I was able to start a job in my state's public service. I've been there for over a year now and I feel very much at home. The work is interesting and varied, and I really enjoy it.

Since September, I've also been in charge of training our new apprentice. Our office hadn't trained anyone in a long time, so we're growing into this new role together as a team. Being able to help shape that makes me proud.

At the same time, I'm doing a part-time professional development program alongside my job to move forward in my field. The combination of a new responsibility, a bigger role, and personal growth does me an incredible amount of good. 

What did you learn in 2025?

One sentence has stayed with me all year: “In the end, everything will be okay. And if it's not okay yet, it's not the end.”

A lot turned around for the better in 2025. That didn't happen by chance. It happened because I took active steps: changes at work, the courage to try alternative treatments, the staying power for long-term weight loss, and a deliberate look at how care work and household work are divided in our partnership, which gives me the free time for my training program.

In 2025, I learned to shape my life on purpose again and not to define myself only by my role in the family. I started accepting myself with all my strengths, my limits, and my illness too. That helped me grow. I'm proud of my path and grateful for my family, who supported me through this intense time and sometimes lovingly put up with me.

Your own path rarely runs straight. There are often detours and obstacles. But right now I feel like I've reached a stretch that's easy to walk, and I have enough energy to handle the hills still ahead. I wish that strength for everyone going through something similar.