What Happens With Your Metabolism Rate When Your Thyroid Is Removed?

The thyroid is the gland of the endocrine system that produces the hormone thyroxine which regulates bodily metabolism. This hormone helps control everything from weight gain and weight loss to crucial organs and systems of the body.

Identification

• A thyroidectomy is the surgical procedure to remove the thyroid. It typically is undertaken only in extreme cases of disease such as thyroid cancer or when other alternatives fail to cure various thyroid diseases. The metabolism rate when your thyroid is removed is thrown into a state of flux

Significance

• Metabolism is the chemistry that occurs in cells releasing energy to the body from nutrients. Without thyroxine to regulate metabolism an individual will experience extreme fatigue and lack of energy.

Effects

• Lifelong thyroid hormone replacement therapy will be necessary. "Thyroid hormone therapy is the use of synthetic thyroid hormones to raise abnormally low levels of thyroid hormones," according to The University of Virginia Health System.

Considerations

• Synthetic thyroxine (T4) works in the same manner as a patient’s own thyroid hormone would according to The American Thyroid Association. Hormone replacement therapy will be utilized even if only part of the gland was removed.

Cancer

• Those who have had a thyroidectomy due to papillary or follicular thyroid cancer will also benefit from the ability of this synthetic hormone to keep the cancer in remission. The hormones are taken orally via a small tablet each day.