I have just been diagnosed as having Graves disease – very severe. My
doctor is pushing heavily for radioactive iodine destruction of thyroid
cells.

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis. The response you have received from the
medics for your Graves’ condition are typical, especially if you are in the
United States or in the United Kingdom. Less often, a thyroidectomy is
suggested. ATDs are a third alternative – there are other posters here who
will discuss the topic. PTU or Tapazole are ATDs if you wish to check out
the anti-thyroid drugs.

There is no reason you cannot use anti-thyroid drugs for a lengthy time
— I used them successfully for over 2 years and was then persuaded to
take RAI — I have had nothing but problems since —- also you must
not have RAI while you are seriously hyperthyroid as this can be
dangerous as your thyroid releases all its stored hormone when the
radiation hits. Most doctors would recommend that you stabilize the
hormone levels first with ATD’s —-

Also, RAI has been known to aggravate thyroid eye disease in Graves
patients so this is something to explore before you make a decision.

On the whole, I would have wished that I had stayed on ATD’s as I felt
much better than since RAI when I have been unable to get my replacement
levels straightened out. In Europe patients are kept on ATD’s for years
— they must simply be carefully watched for rare but serious
side-effects — not a problem if you are carefully monitored.

I have heard that eventually nearly 100% of all patients who are

treated in this way turn hypothyroid.

This is probably accurate. RAI treatment is inaccurate and usually results
in a person being rendered hypothyroid. I cannot recall a poster here
receiving RAI and remaining euthyroid for a protracted length of time.

This seems like replacing one

illness for another. I don’t know if I want to go this route and would
rather try anti-thyroid drugs first.

IMHO this would be an excellent idea, and other posters will probably agree
with this point of view. There is *always* the possibility that you might
be the lucky one who goes into remission, and therefore have several more
years of ‘normal’ thyroid activity. The possibility of remission is removed
if a person takes RAI; RAI usually renders a person hypothyroid. (There
are cases where a person has two or even three treatments of RAI, but I
believe this is rare).

However, he told me some stuff about

that if I did that and then decided to try the radioative treatment in the
future, it wouldnt work as well.

I have never read anything here or elsewhere about this. Ask this doc for a
paper/study which discusses this point of view. If there is a study please
let us know.