Hypothyroid and fertility / IVF

[kerry231]

Really hope someone can help me 😔

I have underactive thyroid and was told it was sub clinical no sign of antibodies issues etc. We have had 1 fresh and 2 frozen cycles of IVF - ICSI due to my husbands sperm issues. With ICSI the best sperm is injected so when we had done great quality embryos we thought we had a great chance!

However after the second failure my clinic sent my GP a letter suggesting my TSH should be lower than 2.0 (it was 2.9 or something) GP did nothing about the letter and wasn't until I was already started more mess for a 3rd frozen transfer that the clinic asked about it - so we had a mad rush of doubling my thyroxine immediately and hoping it worked quick enough!

Day of transfer I was tested again and it was only down to 2.84 antibodies were checked too and ok but I wasn't hopeful. Low and behold it failed again so now I'm on 150mg due to be checked again soon (GP hasn't responded to my email asking when I should test again so guess I'll have to book myself in!)

My questions are - it was supposed to be hubbys issues but could my thyroid be affecting my ability to implant?

When I test again should I be asking for any other tests?

Reading other threads might it be worth hubby getting his thyroid tested too - it has never been done but could it affect his sperm morphology?

Anyone else had these issues I'd really appreciate some guidance please, we are in Scotland if that helps

Many thanks

[marsaday]

2 ivf fail, 1 frozen fail, 4th time it worked. ICSI for us as well, but my wife struggled with implantation. She isn't hypothyroid, but she takes T4 (50mcg) because it makes a huge difference to her health. Her TSH was 0.84. Her thyroid was not the issue we think.

On the 4th test we paid for advance blood testing which is analysed in USA. Cost £900.

This shows what is happening with the womens immune system. My wife was making (and probably still does) a high amount of killer cells and had high cytokines and had blood clotting issues.

She had to take aspirin for the blood clotting and do an intra lipid infusion 3 times during pregnancy. This was palm oil (i think) which bound to the killer cells and made them sort of go blind. They then stopped attacking the body and the all important developing embryo.

I thought i would post because all this is useful info. I would also really appreciate if anyone has any knowledge on this topic to comment because we still don't know what is the reason why my wife has these issues. The docs don't know themselves.

Here is the TH1:TH2 cytokine result she had done. If anyone can comment on these i would again appreciate it:

TNF-a:IL-10 (cd3+cd4+) = 44 (13.2 - 30.6)

IFN-g:IL-10 (cd3+cd4+) = 22.8 (5.8 - 20.5)

Just putting to bed a very noisy 2 1/2 Y/O so it is worth the effort

[kerry231 in reply to marsaday]

Thank you for your reply that is really helpful - I asked about testing for natural killer cells but they said it's not something they do as even if they did find something there is not much ways they can treat here in the UK not sure if that is true or just a fob off however there is so much information online it is really hard to tell what is best

Although I guess if I don't have thyroid antibodies I would hope I don't have similar antibody issues and therefore no killer cell issues but who knows!

My hypothyroidism was always put across to me that it was so minimal they wouldn't normally treat but as I had symptoms they gave me 50mcg - it don't seem to make much difference but whether it is in my head or

Not since I've been boosted to 150mcg so far I feel much better and am finally managing to loose some weight which can only help too

[marsaday in reply to kerry231]

My wife has no thyroid antibodies, but has these killer cells.

We went to Care UK, which is the big national chain. Nottingham is the head office and is next to the M1 so easy to get to. They do this testing, but the guy who developed all this testing is based in the USA and so all blood has to go to his office. He wrote a book explaining why people can't get pregnant and i think all women should be able to get pregnant according to him. You just have to find out the reasons why.

If you want the book details i will try find out for you, but off to bed now.

[kerry231 in reply to marsaday]

That would be an interesting book to read yes if you can find info that would be great

[humanbean]

I would definitely suggest getting as many nutrients optimised as possible before doing another round of IVF, and also get thyroid levels optimised too (Free T4, Free T3).

Leave as few things to chance as you possibly can.

[kerry231]

Just found some results I did manage to get and right down! So my TSH was 2.94 my free T4 was 17 and TPO (is this antibodies?) was 2.0 - can anyone help me interpret those results?

My last test TSH was down to 2.84 but they didn't tell me anything else

[loueldhen]

I have two kids. Struggled with fertility. Only times I became and held pregnancy were when I went on a clean eating regime (mainly meat, fish, veg water). In my experience, the quality of what you are putting into your body is really important.

[kerry231 in reply to loueldhen]

I agree I have been doing slimming world for a while now which naturally is clean eating if you are filling up on "free foods" of course only since they increased my dose as the weight started coming off just keep wondering if I should have others things checked to see why is my thyroid under active if not hashimotos and why isn't the IVF working

[kerry231]

My levels now are TSH 0.03 which seems like a drastic change! I will review

With doctor on phone consultation later, FT4 is 22 and FT3 is 5.8 which is good right?

Apparently I also have low iron levels also to be discussed on tonight's phone consult but has anyone had experience of low iron also?

[Clutter in reply to kerry231]

Kerry231,

FT4 22 is usually top of range, and FT3 5.8 high in range. TSH 0.03 is suppressed so your GP might want to reduce dose a little to raise TSH. There's nothing wrong with suppressed TSH but doctors don't like it. Don't let your GP reduce dose by more than 25mcg.

NICE CKS recommend a low-normal TSH of 0.4 - 2.5 for women planning conception and during the first trimester.

cks.nice.org.uk/hypothyroid...

Low iron is common in menstruating women and hypothyroid women. It may be a good idea to ask your GP to check vitamin D, B12 and folate levels too.

[kerry231 in reply to Clutter]

Thanks clutter I asked for the others so will check if they were tested too I do take vitamin d and calcium anyway as well as folic acid so I think he said they should be ok. B12 i will check on also