Hot Flashes, Night Sweats and Your Thyroid. Plus: What is Graves Disease?

I have severe hot flashes and night sweats. Could this be a problem with my thyroid?

No one likes having their peaceful sleep disturbed by hot flashes and night sweats. However, it is fairly common. The question we are answering today is if this can be

caused by a problem with a thyroid; the answer is yes, it absolutely can. In fact, night sweats and hot flashes are some of the most common symptoms of having a hyperthyroid.

This is due to the fact that thyroid is a hormone and it is part of a hormone cascade; hormones all work together. If you are having night sweats or hot flashes, feeling sort of like a permanent menopause, it most likely is your thyroid. The next step is to look at why it’s not working, and work to correct that issue.

What is Graves Disease?

“Graves disease is an autoimmune disease that causes the thyroid to over activate”. This leads to too much thyroid hormone and can create something called exophthalmos. This is when your eye bulge or ‘bug’ out from their eye sockets and you can see the white around your iris. You can also have symptoms of heart palpitations and can even lead to heart attack or stroke.  

Graves Disease is very serious and should usually be handled on a more emergent level of care.