Oh man, WCW, horror stories like this just make my blood boil!!!
Unfortunately, thyroid disease SEEMS decpetively easy to treat. You check one simple number, it is either in the normal range or not, if it's abnormal you write a prescription for Synthroid, as soon as you get the numbers in the right range, patient is "cured". And it is thought of as a simple disease, not life-threatening, so there is little urgency about it.
The reality is so much more complicated that that. Since your thyroid hormone basically controls your metabolism throughout your entire body, lack of it affects you in dozens of ways. Relying on the TSH test alone, while admittedly a cost-effective screening method, misses some cases - yet doctors have become so wedded to this test, that they don't think to test further even when patients have strong family histories or typical symptoms of hypothyroidism.
And there is even debate among the experts about how to interpret the tests. I bet your test results WERE considered normal 4 years ago - because the guidelines for what is considered the normal range has been changed since then.
Do make sure they check you for thyroid antibodies this time, and check a free T4 (and hopefully a free T3, although this is harder to get them to do) along with repeating your TSH.
I often wonder how many marriages fall apart because the LBS develops the subtle symptoms of untreated hypothyroidism, and the WAS becomes frustrated with their weight gain/ lack of libido/ fatigue/ depression/ signs of aging/ whatever.
