Una Healy revealed she is on medication for life for Hashimoto's disease as she opened up about her ‘shocking’ diagnosis with the autoimmune condition.
The Irish singer, 39, was diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder during a tour with her former girl group, The Saturdays.
Recalling the ‘shocking’ time, the flame haired country singer said she feels lucky to have caught it early on, and told how the chance diagnosis came after a producer noted how ‘raspy’ she sounded during a demo recording.
The Tipperary native said: “I remember when I joined the Saturdays first, you probably hear it a lot on the early recordings, my voice was a lot huskier, now I do have a husky tone that comes out sometimes, like a rasp.
“It just comes out sometimes, I can’t put it on, it actually hurts to even do that.
“But I found that it was happening more and more and I went in one day to demo a song we were doing with the girls and the producer went ‘ok, can you do that again’ he looked really worried.
“And he said to me ‘you have a very unusual voice’ because on that day it was so husky and I think a lot of people liked the huskiness but it was getting to the point where it was all the time and I knew there was something wrong.”
The mum of two to Aoife, 9, and Tadhg six, was diagnosed shortly after, as she began to lose her voice during a big tour with the popular band.
Speaking to musician Emm Gryner on Instagram, she said: “I felt like I was losing my voice, and the doctor came in and was examining all of us. Because we were all feeling down and I guess the stress of it all.
“And with a tour we all had to start getting better so the doctor came in to see all of us.
“And he kind of looked around my neck, and he was like you’ve a bit of swelling around your throat there. Have you ever had your thyroid examined?
“And I said no, so I had my blood checked to check how my thyroid levels were and it turned out I’ve an underactive thyroid, so I’m hyperthyroid.
“It’s an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's.”
The singer and RTE presenter said she is feeling fine now, but told how the condition means she will be on medication for life.
“So I am now on thyroxine, I have to take it daily, forever. But I am totally healthy and completely normal.
“But that was the side effect of the early days of it.”
The illness, in which the thyroid gland is attacked by the immune system, can cause symptoms including fatigue, depression, infertility, weight gain and Una's trademark husky voice.
Una previously said that feared that she wouldn't be able to conceive due to the auto-immune disease, before welcoming her two children after the diagnosis.
“One of the side effects of having an underactive thyroid is hoarseness... so i’m lucky that i caught it on time when I did.
“That was something that happened, it was a bit shocking actually,” she added.
“There are a lot of different side effects to it, and I didn’t have any of the big obvious ones apart from that my neck was slightly swelling and I can see in old pictures now where that was.
“But it is good for people to get checked,” she urged.
Stay up to date with the latest showbiz news and gossip by liking our dedicated Facebook page
