Tired or thyroid? How to identify and deal with problems with 'the body's generator'

The thyroid can be overactive or underactive, leading to weight loss or gain. Around 10% of women believe they’ve experienced thyroid problems — an issue often mistaken for fatigue, and disproportionately affects females

Elaine Lingard, Bundoran. Photo: Clive Wasson

Elaine Lingard thought her body was bouncing back to full health following the birth of her third child in 2011. The now 54-year-old, from Bundoran, Co Donegal, was 40 and was pleasantly surprised to easily lose her baby weight.

“I thought I was being really lucky at getting back in to shape,” she says. “But the weight dropped too quickly, and then I got thinner than I had ever been before. I’d always been a size 12 before my pregnancies, so when I dropped to a size 10, I started to worry. It was when I started getting lightheaded and dizzy, not sleeping and breaking in to sweats that I realised things definitely weren’t right.”