Hi I'm Dr. Allen Peters, Physician & Healthy Aging Expert from NourishingWellness.com and I'm here today for About.com to share with you how to do a Self-Test for Thyroid Problems. This is a very simple exam which I do on every patient that I see, and you can do on yourself. You put your head back and feel for the thyroid cartilage. You feel both sides of the cartilage, and you might feel a small amount of soft tissue. You can exaggerate the tissue or exaggerate the thyroid cartilage by swallowing several times. If you feel more than a small amount of tissue-If you feel a swelling or lumps or bumps this may be indicative on an enlarged thyroid or thyroid nodules which could be benign or malignant.ย If you do feel something large you should see your doctor. If he or she agrees the next step is usually getting an ultrasound. Now I want to mention that there are also some lumps behind the cartilage on the side of the neck, and these are just lymph nodes. I'm talking about the actual thyroid cartilage itself and the gland that is right there in that particular area. By the way, I want to emphasize that you could have an abnormal thyroid without being able to feel anything. It can be either hypothyroid or hyperthyroid. So if you are having symptoms of an increased metabolic rate like high blood pressure and palpitations and anxiety and nervousness to a great degree. Or if you are having slow down symptoms of slow-down metabolism like being tired and fatigued and depressed and low blood pressure and low pulse rate and constipated and hair falling out, then you may have thyroid disease even if you can't feel anything abnormal. So under those conditions you should also go see your doctor. I hope that this has been helpful for you today. Thank you for watching. To learn more, visit us online at About.com.