Summary
Your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in your neck, just above your collarbone. It is one of your endocrine glands, which make hormones. Thyroid hormones control the rate of many activities in your body. These include how fast you burn calories and how fast your heart beats. All of these activities are your body’s metabolism.
Thyroid problems include:
- Goiter – enlargement of the thyroid gland
- Hyperthyroidism – when your thyroid gland makes more thyroid hormones than your body needs
- Hypothyroidism – when your thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormones
- Thyroid cancer
- Thyroid nodules – lumps in the thyroid gland
- Thyroiditis – swelling of the thyroid
To diagnose thyroid diseases, doctors use a medical history, physical exam, and thyroid tests. They sometimes also use a biopsy. Treatment depends on the problem, but may include medicines, radioiodine therapy, or thyroid surgery.
Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health
Current as of 00:50 UTC 23 April 2021
Starting today, we’re launching additional health panels for COVID-19 that show in search results for COVID-19 related searches. These panels include text-based health info from the WHO and NHS, and content like symptoms, prevention and treatment. During this time, we want to continue to prioritize local health sources, so you may see both an information panel with a link to a local health authority and the COVID-19 health panel.
[16:00 UTC 11 March 2020] Updates to monetization for coronavirus-related content: Currently, the coronavirus situation is considered a “ sensitive event ”. Our sensitive events policy was designed to apply to short-term events of significant magnitude, like a natural disaster. Due to the ongoing nature of this situation, we’ll begin enabling ads for content discussing the coronavirus on a limited number of channels. This will include creators who accurately self-certify and a range of news partners, with more channels to follow. We’re preparing our policies and enforcement processes to expand monetization to more creators and news organizations in the coming weeks.
If your content doesn’t follow these guidelines, we may limit monetization on your COVID-19-related content, or in rare cases, temporarily disable monetization on your channel.
We want to help you provide your viewers with high-quality content on this topic, and following the guidelines above will help ensure you do so.
We’re expanding the monetization of content mentioning or featuring COVID-19 to more creators and news organizations. If you’re a creator, you’ll receive a notification in YouTube Studio when this change has gone into effect for your channel.Here are some guidelines for uploading COVID-19-related content:
As we take steps to prioritize the wellbeing of our extended workforce, reviews of creators’ perks for their channel memberships are likely to take much longer than usual. This means:For channels that need to change channel memberships perks, you can communicate the changes to your audience through a video and/or a Community post. You can also create or update an intro video . All channel membership perks you offer — whether or not they’re included in the perks listed on your offer screen — are subject to membership policies and guidelines.
We’re working with our partner companies to enable our extended workforce to be online at home where possible, including shipping laptops around the world, and ensuring they’re connected to the internet. As we take the steps needed to support the health of our extended workforce, we’ll strive to review as many videos and process as many applications as possible. We appreciate everyone’s patience during this challenging time, and will keep the updates coming as this progresses.
[16:53 UTC 20 March 2020] Expect Delays – YPP application reviews : As we’ve already shared , we’re taking the steps needed to prioritize the health of our extended workforce, including reducing in-office staffing in certain sites, to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As a result, it will likely take longer than one month to hear back about your application to YPP. You can continue to check your application status here .
If you’re already live with the merch shelf and want to add new merchandise items or modify the name or description of existing ones, you may need to wait longer than usual for those items to be reviewed and approved for display on your channel.
If you are new to merch on YouTube, please note that you may not be able to enable the merch shelf and related features until our review capacity returns to normal.
If your content doesn’t follow these guidelines, we may limit monetization on your COVID-19-related content, or in rare cases, temporarily disable monetization on your channel.You may still see yellow icons on new uploads as these systems learn and are tuned to allow for broader monetization of coronavirus content. Please appeal if you feel your content is in line with our updated policies so our teams can review and update accordingly.
The situation with coronavirus continues to change day by day, and we’ll continue to take the steps needed to protect our teams and the communities where they live. This may affect additional types of YouTube user and creator support and reviews, such as applications for the YouTube partner program or responses on social media. Thank you for your patience while we take the steps needed to protect our workforce.
As always, if you believe that your content was removed in error, you can appeal , but do note that our workforce precautions may also result in delayed appeal reviews.
With this change, we will start relying more on technology to help do some of the work normally done by reviewers. This means automated systems will start removing some content without human review. As we do this, users and creators may see increased video removals, including some videos that may not violate policies. We won’t issue strikes on this content except in cases where we have high confidence that it’s violative.
[17:00 UTC 16 March 2020] Protecting partners and our extended workforce: We have teams at YouTube as well as partner companies that help us support and protect the YouTube community–from people who respond to user and creator questions, to reviewers who evaluate videos for possible policy violations. We are taking the steps needed to prioritize the wellbeing of our employees, extended workforce, and the communities where they live, including reducing staffing at certain sites.
[16:00 UTC 17 March 2020] Longer than usual support response: As we take steps to prioritize the well-being of our extended workforce, expect longer than usual wait times for responses to questions across all forms of support including email, chat, and social.
We’re also adding a destination page on the Explore tab for content from creators participating in the #StayHome and ___ #WithMe campaign. This page will highlight some of our creators who have used video to help people learn, connect and entertain during this time.
If you choose to use YouTube to share content urging people to #StayHome, consider videos that are helpful, fun and informational and tag #StayHome and ___ #WithMe (e.g. #StayHome and cook #WithMe or #StayHome and learn #WithMe). For inspiration, check out our channel .
[18:00 UTC 19 March 2020] I’m a YouTube Creator, how can I help? Many Creators have asked us how you can help with the evolving COVID-19 situation, and right now one of the best things you can do to help yourself, your family & friends, and your community in the days ahead is to slow the rate of infection by staying home as much as possible.
Since announcing a temporary closure of our physical YouTube Spaces early last year due to the pandemic, we’ve focused our partner programming and plans to reach more creators and artists through virtual events. To better meet the needs of our ever growing community into the future, we’re reimagining YouTube Spaces. Read the latest in our blog
[23:48 UTC 17 March 2020] Longer-than-usual response times on support: Due to to the recent global health crisis related to COVID-19, we’re operating with a limited team. See your options to connect with a support specialist , or consult the Help Center .
[17:00 UTC August 10, 2020] Depression and anxiety information panels available in more countries: We’ve partnered with authoritative sources such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to launch depression and anxiety health information panels in 27 more countries. For a list of these countries and the authoritative sources we’ve partnered with, see our Health Information Panels article. These information panels were first introduced in the US on July 13, 2020 to give users easy access to authoritative mental health info during the COVID-19 pandemic. Info such as symptoms and treatment options for depression and anxiety appear in the panels. This info can help users make informed decisions about whether to seek support or medical care. We hope to continue making the panels available in more countries/regions soon.
[16:30 UTC 13 July 2020] New health information panels for depression and anxiety: The COVID-19 pandemic not only affects physical health, it can also affect mental health. To help people access authoritative information more easily, we’re introducing depression and anxiety
The COVID-19 pandemic not only affects physical health, it can also affect mental health. To help people access authoritative information more easily, we’re introducing depression and anxiety health information panels in YouTube Search. We’ve partnered with the Mayo Clinic to launch the panels, which show information on symptoms and treatment options for depression and anxiety. In the U.S., the depression and anxiety health panels link to clinically validated Google self-assessments. The self-assessments give users more info on what kind of support or medical care may be appropriate for them. The panels and self-assessments are currently available in the U.S. and we hope to make the panels available in more countries/regions soon.
[23:15 UTC 11 June 2020] Update to the COVID-19 health panel self-assessment: In April, we launched a COVID-19 self-assessment in our COVID-19 health panel in YouTube Search. The COVID-19 self-assessment now links out to Google’s self-assessment screener, which is based on CDC guidelines. The self-assessment screener gives users more info on what kind of support or medical care might be appropriate for them. It is available in the U.S. and will roll out to more countries soon.
[23:34 UTC 30 April 2020] COVID-19 health panel self-assessment: To help people make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care, we’ve launched a link to a COVID-19 self-assessment in our COVID-19
To help people make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care, we’ve launched a link to a COVID-19 self-assessment in our COVID-19 health panel in Search. We’re starting by launching this in the U.S., partnering with the Center For Disease Control, and will roll out to more countries soon. The COVID-19 health panel links out to the CDC’s self-assessment screener on the CDC website, where users can answer questions to inform recommendations about what kind of medical care might be appropriate.
[16:00 UTC April 1 2020] COVID-19 health panels: Starting today, we’re launching additional health panels for COVID-19 that show in search results for COVID-19 related searches. These panels include text-based health info from the WHO and NHS, and content like symptoms, prevention and treatment. During this time, we want to continue to prioritize local health sources, so you may see both an information panel with a link to a local health authority and the COVID-19 health panel.
[13:30 UTC 24 March 2020] Update on adjusted bandwidth usage: Last week, we temporarily defaulted all videos on YouTube to standard definition in the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland (CH). Given the global nature of this crisis, we are expanding that change globally starting today. This update is slowly rolling out. You can manually adjust the video quality of any video you’re watching on a computer, TV, or mobile device. We will continue working with member state governments and network operators to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.
[21:16 UTC 20 March 2020] Adjusted bandwidth usage: As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, more people come to YouTube to find authoritative news, learning content, and make connections. We have measures in place to automatically adjust our system to use less network capacity. We’re temporarily defaulting all traffic in the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland (CH) to Standard Definition. You can manually adjust the video quality of any video you’re watching on a computer, TV, or mobile device. We will continue working with member state governments and network operators to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.
[21:35 UTC 19 March 2020] COVID-19 news shelf: A COVID-19 news shelf may now show on the YouTube homepage. The shelf includes news videos about COVID-19 from authoritative news publishers and local health authorities on our platform. The content in this shelf is populated algorithmically, using hundreds of signals, including relevance to COVID-19, how up-to-date it is, and region. You may not see the COVID-19 news shelf if a Breaking News or Top News shelf is already showing. You can always dismiss the COVID-19 News shelf on the homepage.
[16:00 UTC 17 March 2020] Longer than usual support response: As we take steps to prioritize the well-being of our extended workforce, expect longer than usual wait times for responses to questions across all forms of support including email, chat, and social.
[16:00 UTC March 11 2020] Info panels: Starting in February, we launched info panels that drive users to the World Health Organization or to local resources that reflect local government guidelines. The panel will be visible on the YouTube homepage, in Search for queries related to coronavirus, as well as on the watch page for videos related to coronavirus. We’ll donate ad inventory to governments and NGOs in impacted regions to use for education and information.
