Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck.

It makes hormones that control the way the body uses energy. These hormones affect nearly every organ in your body and control many of your body’s most important functions. Thyroid disorders can range from a harmless goiter (or enlarged gland) that needs no treatment at all to life-threatening thyroid cancer.

Problems with the thyroid can be caused by: iodine deficiency. autoimmune diseases — when your immune system attacks your thyroid — such as Graves’ disease or Hashimoto’s disease. inflammation (thyroiditis), which may or may not cause pain.