Autoimmune diseases & women's health. From: National Women's Health Report | Date: September 1, 2006 | COPYRIGHT 2006 National Women's Health Resource Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

For 41-year-old Judy Pate, it started in June 2006 with nervousness, a pounding heart and shaky legs that were so weak it was so hard to climb the stairs to her Boston apartment. A few weeks later, having missed three days of work with what she thought was the flu, she finally received her diagnosis: Graves' disease, a form of hyperthyroidism, caused by an overproduction of thyroid hormone.

Catherine Thomas's diagnosis came 22 years ago, the day she woke up and found she...