I am sick to death of patients not having access to the thyroid treatment they deserve.  As someone with hypothyroidism, I can tell you that patients suffer when their treatment options are limited to whatever benefits Big Pharma, their far reaching influence and the health insurance companies.  And it’s time we take action!

According to their most recent guidelines, the American Thyroid Association can actually penalize doctors who prescribe outside of standardized care that does not work for everyone–Synthroid (brand name) / Levothyroxine (generic) drugs.  Why would a governing medical body do that unless they were being monetarily influenced by the drug companies who own the drugs they are recommending? 

I can tell you as someone with Hashimoto’s, the autoimmune version of hypothyroidism, Levothyroxine under-treated me and all the while I was experiencing damaging side effects–plus I had no idea there were other options that would have been better for me.  Let’s not let that happen to another patient! That’s why I am asking you to sign my petition demanding that the American Thyroid Association not punish doctors for recommending alternative treatments for hypothyroidism and that they list all of the relevant treatment options in their guidelines!  

 
For some people, Levothyroxine works and that’s fine, however WE PATIENTS should have the right to choose the types of treatments we receive, after all we are paying for the insurance, paying the doctors and paying for the medication to heal OUR OWN BODIES! Patients should have the rights to types of treatments/drugs including, but not limited to: Natural Desiccated Thyroid, T3, time-released T3, and compounded T4/T3. And doctors should NOT BE penalized for offering these options!

My name is Maggie Hadleigh-West. I'm the director of the documentary Sick to Death! I fight for a better life for all people with thyroid disease. I encourage you to sign this petition and join our fight at Sick2death.com