After reading this week’s Prairie Doc column, penned by Dr. Kelly Evans-Hullinger, I thought about the women in my family and the thyroid gland struggles they have experienced.

My grandmother took and at least one of my aunts takes Synthroid, a presciption medication that “restores thyroid levels by replacing the amount of thyroxine (thyroid hormone) that your body is missing,” according to the manufacturer’s website.

Mom was also required to take the drug after part of her thyroid was removed in 1977. She was attending a summer week-long workshop at then Kearney State College and, while getti...