Thyroid Eye Disease Symptoms and Signs

Dry, gritty eyes (irritated eyes). Your eyes may feel dry or sandy.

Talk to your doctor about your symptoms. Images are for demonstration purposes only.

The feeling of something stuck in your eye. It may feel like a piece of dust or dirt is stuck in your eye even though nothing is really there.

Your doctor may call this feeling “foreign body sensation.”

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Watery, teary eyes. This may be confused with allergies or an infection at first.

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Red eyes. Your eyes and eyelids may look red or bloodshot. This may be confused with allergies or an infection at first.

Your doctor may refer to this redness of the eyelids as erythema.

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Eye pain and eye pressure in, around, or behind your eye. The pressure may also cause some people to experience headaches.

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Swollen, puffy eyelids. This may be confused with allergies or an infection at first.

Your doctor may refer to this change as eyelid edema.

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Bulging eyes. One or both eyes may bulge forward because of the swelling of fat and muscle tissues behind your eyes.

In a study with 7O patients, 64% of TED patients had this symptom. Your doctor may call this change proptosis or exophthalmos.

Talk to your doctor about your symptoms. Images are for demonstration purposes only.

Eyelid retraction (pulled-back eyelids). You may find it hard to close your eyes all the way.

This happens in about 9O% of people with TED.

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Misaligned eyes (eyes that point in different directions). You may notice that the position of your eyes does not match.

Restricted eye muscle movement occurs in up to 4O% of people with TED. In more severe cases, the eye muscles can be affected at resting position, leading to the misalignment of the eyes. Your doctor may call this strabismus.

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Sensitivity to light. You may find sunlight or bright indoor light uncomfortable or even painful.

Your doctor may refer to this as photophobia.

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Blurry vision occurs when parts of your field of vision are lost.

In a study of 1OO patients with TED, 3O% experienced blurry vision.

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Double vision. You may see 2 images of the same object.

In one clinical study with 216 patients, 55% of people with TED had double vision. Your doctor may refer to this change as diplopia.

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Loss of vision / colour vision (partial or full). Contact a doctor right away if you are experiencing loss of vision or colour vision because this could mean your sight is at risk.

Based on one registry analysis with 41,211 patients with TED, approximately 18% of patients presented with vision-threatening conditions including optic neuropathy and corneal keratitis, which can lead to vision loss.

Talk to your doctor about your symptoms. Images are for demonstration purposes only.