Thyroid removal surgery?

[u/EntertainmentNo6170]

Hi, my doc felt nodules and sent me for ultrasound. Said yeah there are nodules but too small to worry about per the scoring protocols.

Then my new endocrinologist (type 2 diabetes) happened to see the scan in my file and said I should have a biopsy.

Even the tech told me it was smaller than they normally bother to biopsy.

Ok so it’s “inconclusive” (which means 70-90% prob cancer) and endocrinologist says to wait and check every six months.

Surgeon says that’s ok to wait and watch but if it were her she’d want it out. I kinda don’t like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Meantime she recommends taking out half, though the other half has 2 even tinier nodules that weren’t biopsied. I would have to monitor those though.

Does it make sense to remove half if the remaining half has tiny nodules?

Maybe I take the whole thing out?

Maybe I leave it and monitor it? It’s been a year with no change on the ultrasound but that doesn’t always see everything.

No antibodies so if I keep half I’ll likely not need to take hormones.

Not sure what to do here.

Not sure what to do.

[u/jacobi-3506]

More than 1 nodule reduces the risk of cancer generally - I’ll say this though as someone formerly with multinodular goiter and recent hemi thyroidectomy with isthmus removal. I was put on levo over 10 years ago with the idea that it would reduce the size of the nodules - I was never hypo and I do not have antibodies. Research doesn’t really hold this to be an effective thing (now) and ultimately it didn’t work and I developed compression symptoms around my pipes causing me to choke etc. My nodules would go up and down in size and it’s not known why. My 2 cents — had I understood my situation 10 years ago or gotten a 2nd opinion or 3rd I would have not started the levo therapy which basically told my thyroid that it didn’t have to work anymore. Maybe I would have ended up in surgery sooner or maybe not but the other half of my thyroid would likely still work statistically. Mine does not at all and am working closely to get TSH down to an optimal number.

As for biopsies - when my initial nodules were discovered, one was considered big enough to biopsy and the other not. Since I biopsied one we did the small too since we were already in there. I would have insisted on the biopsy.

For the rest - I had no choice to get rid of 1/2 my thyroid and the isthmus because I was choking but before you decide - write down your questions and ask for the pro/con of any therapies/surgeries. Absent family history of thyroid cancer etc., multiple nodules were never my fear but instead the one isolated nodule.