Ablation success rates diff for women?

I have visited a few EPs now as I consider having an ablation. I was told by one that women with thyroid problems are the most difficult to ablate and that I should make sure my thyroid is stable before attempting an ablation. The Dr. that told me this would not estimate my probability of success because of the thyroid issue. I am hypo and had a med. change this last summer because my T3 was quite high and TSH a bit on the low side.

Just wondering if anyone has heard this before and whether there are any ablations stats on women.

Success rates are similar between gender. However, the procedural risk of bleeding related complications are significantly higher for women. I promised Shannon months ago to post a write up regarding complication stats comparing surveys of tertiary ablation centers and "overall average" centers. May be it is time to do it if enough people are interested.

Melanie Hills had written a nice article regarding gender difference when it comes to disease management.

[www.eplabdigest.com]

Lynn - what meds are you taking now for your thyroid? I was told during my many consults that going too much in the direction of being on the 'hyper' side would not be a good thing heading into ablation or afterwards.

Jackie

I take synthroid. At one point in the late summer my tsh was at the very bottom of the normal range. If I remember correctly around .2. Now it is more like 1.2. I was told that adding new thyroid meds can create new hot spots. Have you ever heard that before?

Researcher, thanks that was a very interesting article.

Yes, thanks. Very interesting.