Meg, it definitely seems as though your family has a propensity for having thyroid issues. They very well could be genetic, but also could be from social factors. Maybe going backwards through the details of your family, will divulge the source of the thyroidisms.
KR, your mention of using Queen Anne's Lace to stimulate your pituitary, reminded me of what I wanted to post about before! It is known in birthing circles that when a mother hemorrhages, as you and I have both done, it directly affects the pituitary gland. Sometimes, the pituitary gland is affected so adversely, that the mother will not produce milk for her baby. In this day and age of intervening in matters of birth, with the myriad of actions in labor and birth, it wouldn't at all surprise me to know that this very thing, the interventions, are the culprit in a good number of women with thyroid issues. So, while we, a collective 'we', are focused on the thyroid, maybe more attention needs to be taken to dig a bit deeper and discover those actions in the body that precede the thyroid.
I LOVE these kinds of discussion!
