What could this be (enlarged thyroid)?

First all the usual disclaimers … you are not a doctor, you are not my doctor, only fools attempt diagnosis over the internet, etc.

A couple of years ago a doctor I was seeing for other reasons told me I had a goiter - nothing serious, but I should see a doctor if if got worse. A few days ago I has passport photos taken, and …AGHGH! One look at the photo and it was suddenly obvious to me that the goiter is a lot worse.

So I went to the doctor, showed him old and new photos of me, and he checked me out and agreed, my thyroid is enlarged. I had a sonogram and blood test - TSH, T-3, and T-4 are normal, no nodules visible on the ultrasound.

They are doing some sort of further blood testing that will take a week and then the doctor will call me. He said they are looking for signs of auto-immune disorders like Hashimoto’s Disease. But of course, Uncle Google has already told me all about that, and I would expect the blood test to show something if it were Hashimoto’s.

So…any thoughts, Dopers? What might cause an enlarged thyroid without causing abnormal sonogram/hormone results?

Frankly I hope they find something (non-life-threatening of course, but it seems most goiters aren’t serious so that’s what I expect) and treat it, since now that I’ve noticed it, I think my neck is really ugly :mad:

(FTR I am female, 58 y.o.)

Sorry for the second post … I just pulled out the results of the blood test. For what it’s worth: they didn’t mention it to me when they told me the results, but the leukocyte count is low and the MCH is high. (Both are just under/over normal.)

I have nothing to add, other than to say I have the same, down to the blood test results.

I would also like to know what is going on…

My only theory relate to the fact that my T levels are on the low end of the normal level. Maybe they are too low for me, despite being “normal”?

Where were yours relative to the range? Bang in the middle or near one end or the other?

Sunny Daze, I guess we can have our own little goiter support group here! My levels were:

TSH - 1.95 (range - .27 to 4.2)
FT3 - 4.3 (range - 3.10 to 6.8)
FT4 - 1.51 (range - .89 to 1.76)

In other words, all pretty comfortably in the normal range.

Are you also having further tests done? If yes, when will you get results? Mine should be back around October 11, and the doctor said he will call me when he gets them.

BTW, I am in Jakarta, so since you are in Oregon we are around 10 hours apart, time-zone wise. This will make any answers to the thread a bit slow, but I’ll definitely check back and respond to anything further you post.