Why-Being-Twins-With-Hypothyroidism-Is-So-Important-To-Us
Donna Roach & Coralie Phillips, Contributors
Thyroid Nation

 

Donna and Coralie discuss why having hypothyroidism and being TWINS is so important to them.

Identical twin authors Coralie Phillips and Donna Roach have just released their fourth book, Duplicate Dreams. It’s about twins and multiples with identical interests and careers in common and it is now available on Amazon.com.

‘In our book, we provide an insight into what it’s like to work with your twin,’ said
Donna. ‘The twins that we have interviewed are from a wide range of locations
including the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Australia. In
addition, their careers are wide ranging. We have interviewed twin actors, twin
singers, twin radio presenters and twin television presenters, to name a few.’

‘My twin sister, Donna and I enjoy writing together,’ said Coralie, ‘therefore, this
prompted us to interview other twins who share the same interests and careers as
each other. However, we also interviewed identical quadruplets.’

Duplicate-Dremas-Book-Thyroid-Nation‘It’s wonderful to be an identical twin and to have a ready-made best friend with
the same interests,’ said Donna. ‘However, for us, being identical twins was even
more important from the point of view of our health. When I was approximately,
nearly six years of age, I developed mysterious symptoms: I was breathless,
exhausted, I began to gain weight despite eating the same as Coralie, my growth
and development stopped and I began to have difficulty with my schoolwork.
Because Coralie was unaffected at that point, my symptoms stood out. It took
awhile, during which time I was misdiagnosed, before I was referred to a
brilliant paediatrician who diagnosed me correctly with hypothyroidism and
prescribed thyroxine for me. Thanks to this, over time, my symptoms disap
peared, I lost weight and I grew taller. By approximately ten years of age,
Coralie and I looked alike again.’

‘When I developed the symptoms of hypothyroidism at approximately, nearly
eleven years of age, my symptoms included shortness of breath, tiredness and
weight gain,’ said Coralie. ‘Because Donna was in good health by then, my
symptoms stood out and I believe that I was diagnosed more quickly than I
would have been, if I hadn’t been a twin.’

‘When we reached our thirties, our blood test results prompted doctors to reduce
our dose and we developed the symptoms of severe hypothyroidism,’ said
Donna. ‘Again, being twins made it obvious to us that it was hypothyroidism
that was causing our symptoms. It was a difficult time. However, eventually,
we found an excellent private doctor who put us on the thyroid hormone
treatment and dose necessary for our recovery. In our case, this was natural
desiccated thyroid
treatment, prescriptions of which, we now receive via the
United Kingdom National Health Service.’

Why-Being-Twins-With-Hypothyroidism-Is-So-Important-To-Us‘On learning about our childhood and adulthood experiences, others will understand why the
two topics featured in our writing are twins/multiples and hypothyroidism/thyroid conditions,’ said Donna.

Duplicate Dreams is the fourth book by Coralie and Donna. They have also written the illustrated children’s book The Twins’ Tale (about their childhood), the romantic novel,
Three Times the Trouble (about fictional Welsh triplets and the impact that hypothyroidism had upon them) and the factual scientific book Hypothyroidism in Childhood and Adulthood, which was published by Nottingham University Press. All of their books are available via Amazon.

Click HERE to read about Donna and Coralie’s Thyroid Thrivers Story

About the Authors

Why-Being-Twins-With-Hypothyroidism-Is-So-Important-To-UsDonna Roach and Coralie Phillips (D Roach BSc (Hons) and C Phillips MSc (Hons) are authors of Hypothyroidism in Childhood and AdulthoodThree Times the Trouble and The Twins’ Tale.  Our experiences of being twins and our experiences of hypothyroidism have inspired us to become authors and to write about topics related to being a twin/ multiple and subjects related to the thyroid. Life in Wales has also been an influence upon our writing. We are committed to raising awareness of the impact of hypothyroidism in childhood and adulthood via our writing, YouTube presentations and talks. In addition, we are delighted to provide an insight into what it’s like to be a twin/ multiple. Follow us on Twitter @thyroid_twins, Coralie’s LinkedInprofile, Donna’s LinkedIn profile and our website, www.ThyroidBooks.co.uk Also, be sure to check out our youtube videos: Thyroid Threats Part 1 and Thyroid Threats Part 2.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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