Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

80% of Thyroid Patients Are Women — Their Symptoms Are Dismissed as Menopause Three Times Mo #shorts

26 Aug 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:53

In this YouTube short, Dr. Aaron Hartman, MD highlights how autoimmune diseases disproportionately affect women—about 80% of the 50 million Americans with an autoimmune condition are female—yet their symptoms are often dismissed as menopause or normal aging. He describes the fluctuating symptoms many patients experience (fatigue, joint pain, achiness, puffiness, rashes) and explains that routine labs often return normal, leading to medical gaslighting and a diagnostic blind spot. Hartman stresses the importance of specific autoimmune screening tests (ANA, thyroid antibody panel, rheumatoid factor, anti‑CCP, ESR, CRP) that are readily available through major labs. He calls on viewers, especially women, to share their stories to educate each other, and points to his website’s blog series and podcasts for deeper guidance on recognizing, treating, and finding providers for thyroid and hormonal issues.

Chapters

Your symptoms come and go. Some days you feel good, some days not so much. You've got fatigue, joint pain, you're achy. Maybe sometimes you feel a little puffy, maybe got some weird rashes. You go to your doctor, because that's what you're supposed to do, right? And they do labs and everything is normal. You go home because there's nothing wrong with you. What possibly could this be? 80% of autoimmune patients are women and they're commonly overlooked because the wrong tests are done. Checking an ANA thyroid antibody panel, rheumatoid factor, and anti-CCP, looking for inflammatory markers like a sed rate, a CRP. These are basic tests that are available and done by specialists all the time. LabCorp has them and Quest have them. But yet, women may go in with some of these symptoms, don't have this testing done. Why is that the case? This is an example of what I call medical gaslighting or a blind spot. The gaslighting is you go in, you're told nothing's wrong with you, and actually is. And the blind spot is they don't see it and realize that actually autoimmune issues are ridiculously common. How common? 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease and 80% are women. That's how common and that's how commonly it's overlooked. So if you're a female who later, or even a male, either way, someone who's had an autoimmune disease, your condition was overlooked and you later found out you've had Hashimoto's thyroiditis, vitiligo, rheumatoid, whatever the autoimmune condition is, I'd love to hear your story below. This is how we can educate each other and It's crazy that even now, after everything we've learned, after the books have been published, people still think that blind spots are not a thing and medical gaslighting is not a thing. Share your story below so we can educate each other that these are actually things we need to address and learn about. And if you're someone who has thyroid issues or hormone issues, we've done blog series on our website as well. We've done a bunch of podcasts to educate people how to look for these things, how to treat them, and how to find a provider even that can help you in your journey. So, take care. We'll talk to you soon. Take care.