Updated March 08, 2014.

If you do a search on "thyroid" in major search engines, you'll come up with a list of key sites. Let's take a look at some of the sites, their strengths and weaknesses, and some information about them you may not know.

Thyroid Disease Manager
http://www.thyroidmanager.org
While it can be a bit imposing, this site is very useful, as it is essentially a medical textbook online. The site features hundreds of pages of detailed information on every aspect of thyroid disease, from physiology to hormone action.

As a medical text, it is thorough, and is a wonderful reference to have available free online. I would love to see it get a more powerful and accurate search feature, which would make the site even more helpful for patients.

Note: As the product of a number of conventional endocrinologists, and, as stated on the front page, "supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Abbott Laboratories, the makers of SYNTHROID," it naturally takes a conservative conventional approach, staying away from anything alternative.

Santa Monica Thyroid Diagnostic Center, Richard Guttler, MD
www.thyroid.com
A commercial site with the purpose of selling Richard Guttler's cash-practice, costly second-opinion and laboratory services. Numerous patients have written to me to complain about the service they received, asking for guidance on how to get their money back, or how to file a complaint. I don't have much to recommend about this site or this fellow. Except for receiving dozens of emails from his dissatisfied former patients who wanted to get their money refunded, my only knowledge of him has been to be on the receiving end of his "bedside manner" when he emailed me a number of ranting emails, including the following: (note: the lack of proper capitalization and poor punctuation are his):

"i'm glad all the "fringes" are filling up your e mail, not mine. it makes my life easier dealing with only the mainstream thyroid patients who would never think of taking armour...next it will be natural designer organic bathtub thyroid personally brewed at your web site...dr.g"

His attitude and personality clearly speak for themselves.

It's obvious that he doesn't take kindly to patients who want to consider options that don't fit into his particularly narrow view of thyroid treatment, those of us he calls "the fringes." There is a reason this doctor is not listed on my Thyroid Top Docs listing, why I do not link to this site, and why I do not recommend it in any of my books. (Note: Also used to Twitter under the hubristic name "DrThyroid" -- check out his tweets to get a sense of his dogmatic and intolerant attitude toward patients and thyroid care).

Also, see this article about his response to thyroid patient empowerment and treatment options.

The Endocrine Society
http://www.endo-society.org
The Endocrine Society is primarily a site for professionals, but it links to its sister site, The Hormone Foundation for endocrinologist referral listings and a variety of detailed patient fact sheets, which are helpful. Their home page maintains a good, frequently updated "Endocrinology in the News" summary. Overall, a decent site.

Note: both sites are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, and stay solely with a conventional/allopathic medicine focus. No alternative medicine approaches are discussed here, or at Hormone.org.

American Thyroid Association
http://www.thyroid.org
The American Thyroid Association is a group of approximately 900 U.S. and international physicians and scientists who specialize in the research and treatment of thyroid diseases. Their membership includes some of the more prominent conventional/allopathic thyroid experts in the country. The home page features links to key news developments and recent journal articles. They have a decent selection of nicely produced basic patient information materials, available at http://www.thyroid.org/patients/patients.html

Note: While it is on appearance a "non-profit" site, it should be noted that this site and the ATA itself are commercially sponsored, with sponsors including AbbVie (maker of Synthroid), Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genzyme Corp (maker of Thyrogen), Kronis Inc. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publisher of Thyroid, Monarch/Jones/King Pharmaceuticals, maker of Levoxyl and Cytomel, and Quest Diagnostics, maker of thyroid assays. As a conventional organization that is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, this organization also does at times make decisions that are more in line with their corporate sponsors than with patients. This was evident when in 2001, the group publicly and strongly defended Synthroid, despite vocal FDA concerns about the product's stability, potency, and continued sale, without FDA approval.