SaveYourThyroid.org
SYT unveils new patient education website!
Hello and welcome back! I’m very excited to share a huge announcement today about a new patient education resource that we’ve developed for patients who want to avoid thyroid surgery.
But first, if you’re new here, my name is Jennifer Holkem and I am an advocate for patients with thyroid nodules who want to avoid unnecessary surgery. If you want to hear my full story, be sure to watch this video, but here’s the short version:
Five years ago, I had a huge thyroid mass and, due to a difficult surgical history, I needed an alternative treatment option. Thyroid radiofrequency ablation changed my life for the better and because of that, I started this channel and a Facebook community to help other patients like me. If you’re looking for patient-oriented information on FDA cleared, nonsurgical treatment options for thyroid cysts, nodules, and some cancers, this is the place for you. Please consider subscribing and sharing this content to help others. Now, back to the big announcement.
Today, I’m so excited announce a new patient education resource that the SYT community leaders and I have developed. Today, I’m going to unveil the new Save Your Thyroid website!
History of SYT
So, in 2019, I started the Facebook community, Thyroid RFA and PEI Testimonials. Because Facebook groups are easy to start and don’t cost anything, it was the perfect way to get the message out about alternatives to thyroid surgery as our community was getting started. As other nonsurgical treatment options became available, we updated the group name to Save Your Thyroid: Nonsurgical Nodule Procedures, because we wanted to be inclusive of all FDA cleared treatment options.
In the group, we maintained a list of the doctors we knew of who were offering these various procedures. As time passed and the list grew, I started getting a lot of messages from people wanting to about doctors near them. While the list was available in our private group, eventually, it became apparent that we needed a public way to share this information. In 2022, I developed a very basic website. It was nothing fancy and to be honest, I was a bit embarrassed of it. But I couldn’t keep up with answering all of the messages, so it served an important purpose.
Today, Save Your Thyroid is approaching 11,000 members spanning the globe, and membership is growing daily. The community is managed a few wonderful volunteers and myself, and we hope in the future to become a nonprofit organization. For the past 2 years, we have been working toward that goal, but it hasn’t been easy. The primary reason is that maintaining a community with so much growth and so many needs takes a lot time, effort, and energy. I also film, record, and manage my podcast on my own because I don’t have resources to hire a staff. To be honest, I’ve been spread too thin for a long time doing all of this work, and because of that, I did not have any free time or mental space to work on improving our very basic website. And since SYT is working toward becoming a nonprofit, we are saving our donations to cover incorporation costs, which aren’t small. Because of that, we could not afford to hire someone to built us a better site.
That is why I’m so grateful that a very generous member of our community stepped up and graciously offered to donate the cost of building SYT a new website. A huge and heartfelt thank you goes out to this member, who wishes to remain anonymous.
So now, without any further delay, let me show you our beautiful, new and improved website, saveyourthyroid.org.
Watch this episode on YouTube, or download for offline viewing on YouTube Music!
Click the thumbnail above to watch on YouTube!
Watch this episode on Spotify, or download for offline viewing!
Click the thumbnail above to watch on Spotify!
I would like to give a shout out to Nitara Marketing who developed our site. They did a fantastic job and it was a pleasure working with them. If you’d like to contact them for your own website development needs, please visit nitaramarketing.com.
A few requests:
1. 2. Go visit the site!
Take a look around and let us know what you think. If you notice anything that is missing or that could be improved, please let us know your thoughts. Visit the site here and email me here.
2. Share your testimonial!
You can email it to me at saveyourthyroid@gmail.com. Please limit your testimonial to 2 short paragraphs or less.
3. Help us keep this effort going!
If the SYT community has been helpful to you, please consider giving back, either by donating or volunteering. You can learn more on the Giving Back page of our site. Together, we can do so much more to help patients like you and me!
I hope this website is a helpful resource for you as you’re educating yourself about nonsurgical thyroid treatment options. Please share this website with your friends and neighbors, because over 70 percent of adults will be diagnosed with thyroid nodules in their lifetime. Let’s create a better tomorrow by spreading awareness about how to save the thyroid and preserve quality of life. Thanks for reading!
The goal of this podcast and blog
I seek to provide data, resources, and expert opinions on the topic of thyroid nodules, and make it accessible to patients. When I was first looking for thermal ablation treatment, everything that I read was physician-facing material. It was very hard for me to understand. This material is meant to help patients understand what's going on in their thyroid gland and what an important gland it is. If you can keep your thyroid intact, that's going to help you live a longer, healthier life, and preserve your quality of life. Thanks for reading this far today! — Jen
If this post was helpful, please consider leaving a tip. Donations support my advocacy. Thank you!
Visit our community website for more information and find a physician offering nonsurgical treatment options for thyroid cysts, nodules, and cancers!
You can also make a donation to the Save Your Thyroid community via our nonprofit fiscal sponsor ThyCa. Please designate your gift for SYT on the donation form. Thanks so much for your support!