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Underactive thyroid and tiredness
Slow, gradual tiredness with weight gain, coldness and dry skin — often mistaken for ageing or mood.
An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) slows the whole body: tiredness that crept in over months, weight gain without a diet change, feeling cold when others are comfortable, dry skin, constipation, and low mood. It is common — roughly one woman in twenty develops it — and very treatable.
The check is a TSH blood test, the screening hormone. If TSH is high the thyroid is underworking. There is no meaningful diet treatment beyond iodine sufficiency (iodised salt does this in most of Europe); the treatment is thyroid hormone replacement, and it works well.
Check first
A TSH blood test — cheap, standard, decisive.
Reference, not medical advice. If tiredness is progressive, unexplained, or comes with weight loss, fevers, night sweats or breathlessness, see a clinician. Nothing here diagnoses.