Summary: A general practitioner is often the first one to diagnose a patient with thyroid disease, and due to the limited access to the endocrinologist, he/she is often forced to order and control the treatment. The availability of commercial tests and ultrasound examinations performed without a particular indication puts the general practitioner in position when he has to interpret results often made in an accidental and somewhat chaotic manner. The most common situations include abnormal results of hormonal tests indicating hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, elevated values of the antithyroid antibodies, and the presence of focal lesions described in the thyroid ultrasound. Less common are palpable thyroid nodules or thyroid pain in clinical examination. Given the growing number of obese individuals, we also discuss the most common obesity-associated abnormalities that can be found in thyroid function tests and ultrasound.