Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma and Its Hormonal Effects in Women Following Surgical Removal

While typically viewed as indolent, papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a clinically significant health condition, especially among women, as the primary treatment for PTC, thyroidectomy, and disproportionately affects them. Thyroidectomy disrupts endocrine function, often necessitating a lifetime of hormone replacement therapy, yet postoperative hormonal outcomes remain understudied. PTC's global research trends, post-treatment effects, and treatment methods are the primary focus of this bibliometric analysis, as the growing awareness of PTC and medical drug toxicity continues to stimulate medical research. Bibliometric methods were used to evaluate trends in PTC-related publications from 2016 to 2025, acquiring data from the Web of Science database. The database searched for the following keywords: "papillary thyroid carcinoma", "thyroidectomy", "hormone replacement therapy", and "women's health." Data were downloaded and analyzed using VOSviewer (Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands), a bibliometric network creation and visualization software. The qualitative analysis included analysis of co-occurrence of specific keywords in and between publications, common co-authorships, analysis of national collaboration networks, and thematic mapping. Results indicated that the literature primarily focuses on PTC and surgical treatments while neglecting endocrine outcomes, hormonal challenges, and postoperative quality of life. The keywords "surgery" and "management" are widespread, whereas "levothyroxine" and "replacement therapy" are rarely used. Despite the thyroid gland's central position in endocrine control, few studies connect treatment of PTC with any systemic hormonal effects. Moreover, international collaboration is highest between France, the People's Republic of China, and the United States, with the same nations also topping PTC publication figures. A growing interest is shown by the increasing number of publications. Throughout, the bibliometric analysis finds both a notable scarcity of literature on hormonal outcomes in female patients with PTC who have been treated with thyroidectomy and an abundance of surgical literature on common treatment methods for PTC. Unlike existing bibliometric studies, this paper centers on gender-specific consequences and underrepresented endocrine outcomes, offering new insights into long-neglected dimensions of PTC care.