Hair loss Treatment Center

GAIL DEVERS:  It took 2-1/2, almost 3 years for me to be diagnosed with a thyroid condition.  And the reason is because the symptoms are so vague.  In 1988 when I first started feeling that something was wrong with me and didn't know what it was.  Didn't have an answer to it, but I was tired.  Couldn't make through my workout.  Just fatigued.  My normal running weight was between 119 and 120 and I had gone down -- at my worst under 85 pounds.

I was going from doctor to doctor and no one was giving me any answers.  I mean I've always had long fingernails and they got really brittle and they'd break and wouldn't grow back.  For me that was the first sign that something was wrong.

The exact symptoms that I had would be dry hair, brittle nails, fatigue, insomnia.  I had menstrual problems where I was having three and four cycles a month.  As an athlete they say you're supposed to have the opposite.  Night sweats and I had problems with my eyes.  And those were probably the main symptoms I was having.

Psychologically and physically it was very debilitating.  I got to the point where I was pulling my hamstring by jogging because you lose the extensor muscles.  And then psychologically as an athlete, you know that you depend on your body and now my body is letting me down.  And there's no answer for this.  So it was very hard for me.  Like the word I use is "debilitating."

You know people thought I was crazy.  Even I began to think that I'm crazy.  There is something wrong and can't somebody give me an answer and there is no answer to be found.

VOICEOVER:  After almost three years of searching for the cause of her ailing health, Devers was diagnosed in 1991 with Graves' disease, a form of hyperthyroidism.

GAIL DEVERS:  The hardest part about having my Graves' disease was not knowing.  I mean I tell people all the time.  I mean it's unanswered question and feeling of not knowing what you're going to do, what you can do.  In my heart, I had the desire to do everything that I had written on paper for my goals and aspirations.  But my body was saying no.

VOICEOVER:  After undergoing radioactive iodine therapy to disable her overactive thyroid, Devers was put on levothyroxine, a thyroid replacement therapy, marketed under such brand names a Synthroid, Unithroid and Levoxyl.

GAIL DEVERS:  I have been on Synthroid since January of 1991, about 10-1/2 years.  It's a very small pill.  I take it once a day every day for the rest of my life.  I say it all the time.  It's a very small price to pay to have the quality of life that I have.

VOICEOVER:  Although oral levothyroxine drug products have been used to effectively treat hypothyroidism for decades, recent FDA regulatory issues surrounding Synthroid, a popular form of levothyroxine, have created a controversy that threatens to pull Synthroid off the market.  So how are patients reacting to the controversy?

GAIL DEVERS:  I don't think people really realize how sensitive your endocrine system is.  I mean what your thyroid does is influence every cell, organ and tissue in your body.  And -- I mean everything comes through that thyroid.  First -- and the medication that you're put on,  you're given a test that regulates how much is supposed to be in your body so your body can continue to function normal and properly.  I take this medication and I depend on this medication to live.  And I've done it for ten years and it works.

VOICEOVER:  Devers went on to win three Olympic Gold Medals and became one of only two women in history to win the 100 meters in consecutive Olympic Games.  In addition to competing, Devers has served as an official spokeswoman for thyroid disease and has started several community outreach programs.  But is she at all regretful of the years she lost to this disease?