pregnant with hypothyroidism need advice

[Adeybabe24]

So I am about 6 weeks pregnant. I have a thyroid didfucntion since birth. Managed with leveothyroxine, two previous pregnancies ended in misscarriage. GP had told me to reduce intake from 150mg to 125mg. Point being I am now pregnant again and again have been dropped to 125mg. Reluctant to do and I'm so overly overwhelmed and stressed that this pregnancy will terminate in misscarriage again

[Dana22]

I don't know too many about the thyroid and pregnancy, but I would suggest you to try to relax and think positive affirmation, it's working trust me.Good luck x

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Adeybabe I don't know much about thyroid and pregnancy, just what I have read on here. I thought Levo was increased during pregnancy so that the baby gets enough T4, and I think TSH is kept below 2 or something.

There are some members who are pregnant and some who know a lot about it but unfortunately the heading of your thread is unlikely to attract their attention.

I don't know if headings can be edited, if not make a new post and make sure you put that you want advice about being pregnant whilst Hypo and the right people should come along.

Congratulations and good luck with your pregnancy

[humanbean in reply to SeasideSusie]

Yes, headings can be edited.

Adeybabe if you look at the bottom of your post you will see a square with a v in it. Click on that, click on Edit from the options that come up. Make the changes you want to to the title of the post, then click on Post.

[Jazzw]

Why on earth is he dropping your dose? He should raise your dose! Think he may not know much about care of pregnant hypothyroid patients! Is there another doctor on the practice you can see?

If not, show the doctor this: cks.nice.org.uk/hypothyroid...

And scroll down to the very last paragraph

Please try not to worry too much - you are at least on a reasonable amount of thyroid hormone but I think you're right to be concerned about the dosage being cut.

[EleanorM-G]

Hi! I have had 2 healthy babies, by following the advice of hypothyriodmom.com & buying the book she wrote. Your Levo should be increased the minute you find out you are pregnant & should continue to be increased throughout your pregnancy. (The website/book will give you guidelines on how much to increase by & when to do it. & what levels you should be in the different stages of pregnancy to avoid miss carriage/still birth, which are the big risks for us.)

You should be tested (blood tests) every 4wks for at least the 1st 20wks, slightly less after that. If your doc refuses to do it that often, get private blood tests with Blue Horizon.

My doc knows very little about the thyroid & pregnancy, but i am very lucky that she listens to me & the things I read & is very open to the suggestions & guidelines. This is the best you can hope for, but means that you need to get knowledgable very quick.

Feel free to private message me. I have the book, so if you need any info you can private message me. Your meds need to be increased now though. Straight away.

[EleanorM-G]

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I am currently on my 3rd pregnancy with an underactive thyroid. I take NDT.

Go to the website, hyperthyroidmom.com. It has lots of great articles, (I have included some thyroid/pregnancy articles at the bottom) and advice you can take to your GP. (You GP will know very little about the thyroid in pregnancy, so it is very important for you to get as knowledgeable as you can. If you are lucky, you will have one like mine, who is very open minded and willing to read the articles and go with my suggestions.) Buy the book she wrote on pregnancy-it’s amazing! “Your Healthy Pregnancy with Thyroid Disease”, by Dana Trentini & Mary Shoman.

If you are already pregnant, then increase your Levo/thyroxinne (T4) by 30% immediately. The demand increases as soon as 4-6 wks into pregnancy and we are trying to avoid miss carriage. Then go to your GP and let them know you need blood tests every 4weeks until 20weeks. The results of these tests, will likely show that you need further increases. (Don’t increase without the blood tests to tell you how much you need.) Your blood tests need to include T3 results. If your GP won’t do this, get private testing done through “Blue Horizon.” As always, get copies of all your blood tests, and post on here for advice. Do not accept your GP telling you that you are “normal” or “within range” as very few of them know what is healthy for pregnancy. At 20 wks, the demands usually plateau and you will need tests/increases less often. (The book tells you how often.)

If like me, you take NDT (T4 and T3) rather than Levo/thyroxine (T4) then the instructions for increasing are not as straight forward, but can and must be done. To get advice, I emailed Lyn Mynott who began Thyroiduk: [e-mail]. I put “Pregnancy Guidelines” in the subject line and she asked a doctor for me. He advised that I follow the instructions for increasing levo, but that I shouldn’t increase T3 at the same rate as increasing T4. (This was easy for me, because I take NDT plus extra T3.) You will read articles saying that you shouldn’t take T3 in pregnancy as it crosses the placenta. I and this doctor, consider this to be untrue, but you need to do your own research.

The book I mentioned above, gives this advice about the TSH levels you need to have to have a healthy pregnancy. This is really helpful to take to your doctor.

"First trimester: less than 2.5 with a range of 0.1-2.5

Second trimester: 0.2-3.0

Third trimester: 0.3-3.0.

TSH should be monitored every 4 weeks during the first 20 weeks of gestation, then once again between 26 and 32 weeks"

If you are on NDT (Ie. Taking T3, your TSH should will be almost 0 with a low T4 in pregnancy (and non pregnancy)

Keep an eye on your B12 levels, as pregnancy places a high demand on these and people with an underactive thyroid are usually deficient to begin with.

Some articles, you may like to read:

thyroid.org/professionals/e...

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

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

hypothyroidmom.com/what-eve...

dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

thyroid-info.com/articles/p...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...