Lump in thyroid

Hello, I went to my GP on Friday as I have lost 3/4 of a stone in weight, tired, back ache, bleeding for over 4 weeks and dizzy, the GP said it could be anemia but she thinks it may be my thyroids, she has wanted me to do swabs and get bloods asap but when I rang up the next appointment for bloods was not until 4 weeks time and she wanted me reviewed in 2-3 weeks, But anyway, I was looking last night and I have noticed a lump, just where a males adams apple would be and also it moves up when I swallow and is hard, I have never seen this before inn my life and now I can feel it as if it’s in my throat. I am panicking. I am ringing the doctors again on Monday but i just can not stop worrying I am only a teenager and i have a nearlu one year old all I can think about is this lump, and if it was serious then what would it mean for my baby, i googled( I know bad idea) and it is coming up with all kinds and i just need to calm down but it is just all I’m thinking about, sorry I don’t know what I wanted to get out of this post think i just needed it off my chest. Thanks for reading if you got this far 

  • Try not to panic. Thyroid nodules are very common and the vast majority are benign. I think about 95% are benign.

    And even if it is cancer, which the odds are against, thyroid cancer is not what you might be imagining when you hear "cancer". At your age, the survival rate is over 99% and they very rarely use chemotherapy or radiotherapy or any ongoing treatment. They just remove your thyroid and maybe some lymph nodes. I had thyroid cancer in 2020 and missed a month of work before returning to normal life (and then another month after that, the world shut down!).

    It would be unlikely to have much impact on your baby. You'd likely have recovered before she was 18 months old. The only possible issue that might arise would be if you needed radioiodine treatment, which is really just swallowing a tablet, but you can't be around small children for a couple of weeks afterwards (to protect them from the radioactivity) so you would probably need somebody to mind her for a short period.

    But this is all really worst case scenario. The odds are you just have a thyroid nodule, as many people do. 

  • Hello, thank you so much for your reply, I think that I just constantly jump to worst case senario and then i google and i freak, this reply has really eased so much  of my anxiety so thank you very much.

  • Hello and thanks for your post

    I’m sorry you are worried about your current symptoms and can understand you wanting to find out more.

    I'm afraid we are unable to diagnose or tell anyone if anything is the matter.  But I don’t think you need to be overly concerned as cancer is practically unheard of in someone of your young age. Symptoms or changes at your age are much more likely to be caused by ordinary everyday problems that teenagers may get from time to time. This can often be related to infection or hormonal changes.

    But only a doctor can make a medical assessment so we always encourage people to go back and see their GP if their symptoms are persisting. Doctors are trained to assess symptoms and can arrange tests if they feel it’s necessary to try to find out what might be going on. 

    I hope you know more about your situation soon. Please get back to us if you need any more information or support.  You may find it helpful to talk things through with one of the nurses on our helpline.  The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.

    Kind regards,

    Celene