Living With Graves’ Disease: How Doctors Monitor Your Health
Graves' DiseaseTreating Graves’ Disease

3 Ways Doctors Monitor Your Health When You Have Graves’ Disease

3 Ways Doctors Monitor Your Health When You Have Graves’ Disease
Everyday Health
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Published on June 6, 2025
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When you have Graves’ disease, regular monitoring is essential to ensuring thyroid hormone levels reach — and stay in — a healthy range. Monitoring helps your doctor adjust treatment as needed and prevents complications, which can help you better manage this chronic condition and strengthen your overall health. When you’re at your best, you’ll be able to better handle any flares or other challenges that may occur.

Keep reading to learn how Graves’ disease will be monitored, so you know what to expect.

Your Monitoring Schedule

How often you need to be monitored will depend on several factors, including the severity of the disease, the treatment you’re on, and whether thyroid levels are coming down as they should.

Graves’ disease can be treated with radioiodine surgery or antithyroid drugs (typically methimazole). People who choose a drug option need closer monitoring for changes in thyroid function over time, as well as medication side effects.

Everybody responds slightly differently to methimazole, which is currently the most common treatment, says David Cooper, MD, a professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “Some people have a rapid normalization of their thyroid levels, and others are kind of resistant to it.”

Your doctor will likely want to check in with you every one to three months until thyroid levels are in the healthy range. After that, you may eventually move to an annual checkup.

3 Ways Your Doctor Will Monitor Graves’ Disease

Graves’ disease is monitored with a few important exams and tests, including:

1. Blood Tests

Your doctor will order blood work to look at thyroid function, specifically checking your levels of triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) — thyroid hormones that play a key role in regulating energy levels, metabolism, other bodily functions, and weight. They will also check your levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which is made by the pituitary gland and regulates hormone production in the thyroid.


Blood tests can also show your levels of thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins (TSI), an antibody doctors use to diagnose Graves’ disease. TSI can mimic TSH, leading to a goiter (enlarged thyroid) and overproduction of thyroid hormones. But once a person has been on antithyroid medicines for a year or two, the antibodies often go away.

2. Eye Exams

Between 25 and 50 percent of people with Graves’ disease experience eye symptoms — most commonly, bulging eyes. This may be called Graves’ eye disease, Graves’ ophthalmopathy, or thyroid eye disease (TED). “Usually, when people develop thyroid eye disease, it comes on in about the same six-month period of time as their thyroid problems start,” Dr. Cooper notes.

Other symptoms can include double vision, dry eyes, eyelids that pull back more than usual, and puffy eyelids. Your endocrinologist can examine your eyes and eyelids and refer you to a TED eye specialist if needed.

3. Physical Exams

When you visit your endocrinologist, they will check your eyes and vital signs, including blood pressure and weight. “One of the main symptoms of hyperthyroidism due to Graves’ disease is weight loss, even though you’re eating a normal amount — or even more than normal,” Cooper says.

Your doctor will also listen for a rapid heartbeat, called tachycardia, which should resolve with treatment. They may prescribe a beta-blocker to control your heart rate and symptoms until thyroid function is normalized. Finally, they will check your skin. In rare cases, people with Graves’ disease can have thickening and darkening of the skin on the shins or the tops of the feet, which is called Graves’ dermopathy or pretibial myxedema.

If you’re taking methimazole, your doctor may also order blood tests to check for side effects of the medication, such as liver dysfunction and white blood cell abnormalities.

Of course, the most important part of monitoring is keeping your appointments and maintaining contact with your doctor. Even when Graves’ disease is successfully put into remission with treatment, it can still recur over time. “It’s crucial to follow up with your doctor and do what is recommended in terms of starting the medicine, getting the blood tests on time, and seeing your doctor for follow-ups,” says Cooper.

In addition, you can educate yourself more about Graves’ disease by visiting the American Thyroid Association.

The Takeaway

  • There are different forms of treatment for Graves’ disease, and your monitoring schedule will depend on the severity of the disease, the treatment you’re on, and how well symptoms are managed.
  • Graves’ disease monitoring includes blood tests, eye exams, and physical exams.
  • Keeping all your appointments with your endocrinologist is important, so they can keep an eye on thyroid levels over time.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Pokhrel B et al. Graves Disease. StatPearls. June 20, 2023.
  2. Thyroid and Parathyroid Hormones. Endocrine Society. January 24, 2022.
  3. TSH (Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone). MedlinePlus. October 30, 2024.
  4. Graves’ Disease. Yale Medicine.
  5. Graves’ Disease. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. November 2021.
  6. Graves’ Disease. MedlinePlus.
  7. Thyroid Eye Disease (Graves’ Eye Disease). Cleveland Clinic. March 2, 2025.
  8. Graves’ Disease. Cleveland Clinic. May 14, 2025.
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Elise-M-Brett-bio

Elise M. Brett, MD

Medical Reviewer
Castle Connolly Top Doctor
Elise M Brett, MD, is a board-certified adult endocrinologist. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and her MD degree from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at The Mount Sinai Hospital. She has been in private practice in Manhattan since 1999.

Dr. Brett practices general endocrinology and diabetes and has additional certification in neck ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration biopsy, which she performs regularly in the office. She is voluntary faculty and associate clinical professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is a former member of the board of directors of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. She has lectured nationally and published book chapters and peer reviewed articles on various topics, including thyroid cancer, neck ultrasound, parathyroid disease, obesity, diabetes, and nutrition support.
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Erica Patino

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Erica Patino is a freelance writer and editor, content strategist, and usability specialist who has worked for a variety of online health outlets, including Healthline, Sharecare, and Twill Care. She was previously a senior editor at Everyday Health. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Hear 2 Tell, a website that covers advances in hearing loss treatment. Patino lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and twin sons.
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