From Oprah’s Wake-up Call to Your Doctor’s Office: She MD Explores Why Hashimoto’s Keeps Getting Missed

Oprah’s thyroid journey to discovering she had Hashimoto’s disease sparked numerous “could this be me?” moments—and for good reason. Too many women drag themselves to appointments with classic symptoms and still walk out with a shrug. That’s where SHE MD steps in, transforming a celebrity wake-up call into a tangible action plan for your next checkup.

On the latest episode, hosts Dr. Thais Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney sit down with Dr. Izabella Wentz, PharmD, FASCP, an internationally acclaimed thyroid specialist and licensed pharmacist, who was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease in 2009. Dr. Wentz’s goal is to cut through the confusion around the mysterious disease, which is a form of hypothyroidism marked by fatigue, unexplained weight gain, and extreme sensitivity to cold. 

Haney frames the scale of the problem early, noting, “One in five women in the Western world has a thyroid condition. That number was staggering.”

Why Hashimoto’s disease gets misread

Dr. Wentz starts by making the lived experience visible. “I was personally diagnosed with Hashimoto’s myself in my 20s, after 10 years of mystery symptoms and bouncing around from different practitioners,” she shares. The responses she heard? “Your symptoms are in your head, you’re just getting older, everybody’s tired.” It’s a story that mirrors what countless women hear when fatigue, mood changes, gut issues, and hair loss pile up with no clear label.

These symptoms lead to brush-offs and dead ends, not because women are overreacting, but because standard testing is too narrow for an autoimmune problem that can simmer quietly for years.

The tests to request at your next appointment

When the right labs are ordered, the answers come faster. Dr. Wentz lays out the essentials without jargon: “If you think you might have Hashimoto’s, the tests would be TSH, thyroid hormones, free T3 and free T4, as well as thyroid antibodies, TPO and TG.” She explains why those antibody markers matter, adding, “Thyroid antibodies are an indicator that the immune system has gone rogue and is attacking the thyroid gland.” In other words, antibodies can flag Hashimoto’s disease even when a basic screen looks “fine.”

Because screening can miss an early autoimmune attack, she urges a broader look. As she puts it, “I really wish doctors would pay more attention to women and test everybody’s full thyroid panel, not just the TSH test, which can be normal for the first 10 years of an autoimmune attack against the thyroid.” Bring this language to your visit and ensure the whole panel—including antibodies—is on your lab slip.

The outdated advice to leave behind

A significant reason many women feel stuck is the outdated “wait it out” script. Dr. Wentz underscores what patients still hear: “We can’t really give you thyroid meds. We’re just going to basically wait and watch and let your thyroid gland burn itself out.” That approach leaves people white-knuckling symptoms for years while the underlying autoimmune process continues. For Dr. Wentz, this method is, rightly, obsolete—and there are better options to pursue, starting with proper testing and a clinician who regularly treats autoimmune thyroid disease.

How to advocate for better care

First, track your symptoms with specific details (sleep, energy, mood, gut health, menstrual cycle, and hair changes). Second, ask for the complete panel Dr. Wentz outlines—TSH, free T3, free T4, and thyroid antibodies (TPO and TG). Third, request copies of results with numbers and ranges, so you know exactly what was checked.

If the labs come back incomplete, follow up to obtain the missing test results. If everything is “normal” but your symptoms are not, use the show’s language to move the conversation forward—especially the reminder that TSH can read as normal early in Hashimoto’s disease. And if you keep hitting walls, consider a second opinion with someone who regularly treats autoimmune thyroid patients.

Like Oprah discovered, if you suspect Hashimoto’s disease, you may not be imagining things. The numbers can catch up to how you feel—as long as you’re looking at the right ones.

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