benign follicular adenoma

[meldc1981]

Hi there,
Approximately 2 months ago I went in to see my doctor about a lump on my throat and to complain about feeling quite sluggish since I had my son 4 months prior.  She sent me for bloodwork and an ultra-sound on my neck.  My bloodwork indicated that I was hypothyroid, and she immediately prescribed 0.05 mg tablets of levothyroxine.  My ultra-sound showed one larger nodule on the left side of my thyroid.  I was then sent to have a Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy.  She called me yesterday with the results...she said it was benign and that the results showed  "benign follicular adenoma".  I was thrilled...until I researched that diagnosis on the internet.  From what I am reading, they say follicular growths should be removed and tested in order to know for sure whether they are benign or malignant.  My doctor is now away for days and I can't seem to get any answers.  My biopsy was done at a large cancer treatment hospital, so I am just wondering how my pathology report can say "benign" when everything I have read says that such a diagnosis is practically impossible for follicular growths unless they are removed and biopsied.  I am very stressed out!!! I would love some insight. My husband thinks I should be thrilled about the the report indicating it's benign, but I am just not convinced. Is it possible that there were clear markers indicating this?  
Thanks

[Mark Lupo, M.D.]

You need clarification of the pathology report.  However, it sounds like they are reading this as a benign follicular adenoma (not to be confused with "follicular neoplasm") -- this is one way of describing a benign thyroid nodule, we usually use benign colloid nodule to avoid this type of confusion however....

[stonea0724]

I can only comment on my case - I had a similar symptom, but in my case, the swelling was almost the size of a golf ball.  In that case, they did an ultrasound, and based on the visual symptoms, they removed half my thyroid almost immediately for biopsy.  They told me that if it came back benign, the remaining half would be left in, and would function just fine.  Unfortunately, it came back as malignant follicular variant, and I had the second half removed a couple weeks later.  Completely manageable with thyroid hormone ever since, and luckily there'd been no invasion outside the thyroid itself.  If you're not personally satisfied with the results/direction you've been given, my recommendation would be to get a second opinion.