Thyroid patient

[Sonikaphogat]

Hiiiii...I am very worried ...my pregnancy is 9 weeks..n my tsh level is 5.6 ...its harmful of my baby or not???

Plz suggest me some idea

[Paddy01]

My tsh was over 9 when I was same as you and I was 35 my son was perfectly fine and weighed 9 lbs when he was born

Had another one 4 years later

Don't stress very important stress is much worse just relax eat good food healthy food and smoothies no junk food and take your prenatals

See your doctor and they can give you a small amount of thyroid if they need to

[Katepots]

Don't overly worry as that's the worst thinhg you can be doing.

I had two children when I had no idea my thyroid was so bad and I wasn't medicated at all. You are definitely undermedicated though so wouldn't hurt to up your dose. Try to get under 2 if you can. Under 1 is optimum but I watched a discussion about pregnancy where the specialist liked to see her patients under 2 in pregnancy.

Good luck, it's an exciting time so just enjoy!

[mistydog]

NICE guidelines state that general practitioners maintain a TSH of 2 or below. Miscarriage is more likely with a higher TSH. Also the baby will be taking your thyroid hormones and therefore you will be deficient.

Talk to your doctor about increasing your medication urgently.

[Hidden]

It's your t4 levels you need to check as these need to be up at the top end of the range, if they are though this would most likely bring your TSH down. Don't panic just get an increase asap. It did cause miscarriages for me I had 7 in all and 2 of my boys were diagnosed with developmental delays. At least you know though you have that in your favour and you can do something about it now. I knew nothing at the time x

[EleanorM-G]

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I am currently on my 3rd pregnancy with an underactive thyroid. I self medicate with NDT (a mix of T4 and T3.)

& extra T3.

I don't want to scare you, but this is a serious issue, and you need to see your GP straight away to increase your medication if you already take some or get started if you aren't yet taking any.

General advise is to increase your Levo/thyroxinne (T4) by 30% on finding out you are pregnant. (The demand increases as soon as 4-6 wks into pregnancy and we are trying to avoid miss carriage amongst other things.)

Let your GP know you need blood tests every 4 weeks until 20 weeks of pregnancy. The results of these tests, will likely show (but not always) that you need several 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 I mention below, 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 some articles saying that you shouldn’t take T3 in pregnancy as it crosses the placenta and some saying its fine-you will need to do your own research.)

Also, check out 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.

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 and T4, your TSH should will be almost 0 with a low T4 in pregnancy (and non pregnancy)

Keep an eye also on your B12 levels, as pregnancy places a high demand on these and people with an underactive thyroid are usually deficient to begin with. (You can’t overdose on B12, anything you don’t need you will pee out. A bit of a waste of money, but not dangerous!)

and Vit D levels.

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...

2017 Guidelines of the American Thyroid Association for the Diagnosis and Management of Thyroid Disease during Pregnancy and the Postpartum

online.liebertpub.com/doi/p...

[EleanorM-G in reply to EleanorM-G]

ps. I have no medical training.

[Ndobins in reply to EleanorM-G]

Ditto all of the above. Please please go to your dr asap. The first trimester is so important . The baby takes your thyroid hormone for itself and you need more anyway. You'll be fine, eat healthy DONT stress and see your dr, you'll have regular bloods taken And be monitored through out. How exciting and best wishes to you, look after your little bean 💞xxx

[Heloise]

From my reading your baby's thyroid is separate from the mother. But for your own sake that high TSH should be addressed.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

It is once the baby is developed enough and after birth but lack of t4 causes miscarriage and developmental delays as the mothers t4 crosses the placenta before 12 weeks. It usually happens when t4 is very low though and TSH high. I was unmedicated when it happened with me. I am now 30 weeks pregnant and this is the first I have carried past 12 weeks in a long time. My thyroid got that low I couldn't carry at all eventually x

[Heloise in reply to Hidden]

Oh katie, of all the tragedies that have occurred due to lack of care, the worst of them all is what has happened to women and motherhood.

I do hope and it appears this one will be successful and that any other women out there find this website for support and self help.

[Hidden in reply to Heloise]

Thank you. I feel guilty about my lack of knowledge on the subject back then but I guess without those loses I wouldn't be carrying the child I am today. Yes hopefully other ladies can learn a lot earlier than I did myself but I am sure there are many going through similar situations x

[JOLLYDOLLY]

Hi Sonikaphogat,

Many congratulations on your pregnancy. I have a partial gland which does not work, so have always been on medication. My TSH have always been naturally low (the last result was 0.54) but at the time I was pregnant, I was taking 200 mcg of thyroxine which was increased to 225 mcg throughout the pregnancy.

To put your mind at rest, speak to your GP as you need to keep your strength up and be healthy. The baby will be taking some of the thyroid medication/hormones from you. I had two healthy babies. Try not to worry but have a check up with your Dr and also the consultant you are under at the hospital (they know best, trust me). Ask them to check your ferritin levels too, especially for anaemia levels. They might just advise you to stay on folic acid as well as your thyroid medication. Are you taking this out of interest. In my day, (I am a golden girl), we were told to take it before and after conceiving for several months. I had to take an iron supplement as well for anaemia.

Try not to worry and enjoy this special time. Let us know how you get on.

Take care

[Eddie83]

Is there a OB watching your pregnancy, or are you using a GP? A competent doc will monitor thyroid throughout pregnancy. To avoid miscarriage or developmental disability, I think you should insist that the doc determine where your FT3 and FT4 are, and give you levo if you are low.