Good morning, I'm still new to thyroid issues and still learning about it- I had raised TSH (6.2) and have started on levothyroxine (25mcg per day). We discovered all this on our path to trying for a baby- no success after 2 years...
The thing I'm trying to learn about now is will the high TPO affect chances of conception? Current levels 900 in range 0-59. I have read it increases chances of miscarriage- is that only referring to cases when thyroid hormones are not under control or is it an increased risk for every woman with hashimotos? I've also Googled and read some articles about antibodies attacking new baby cells and some articles saying steroids are needed in cases of crazy high TPO... but then I've read other articles saying it makes no difference. Can anyone explain the situation to me? Thank you!
we are also following a gluten free diet now as this seems to do no harm and might help.
Thank you.
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Qwerty11
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While Hashimoto's can affect the foetus and may increase the risks of miscarriage it isn't a given that it will. Steroids mayhave been given to women who have had multiple miscarriages to see whether dampening the immune system can be helpful.
If your body is struggling now, imagine if your body had an additional 'mouth to feed' in utero. Get yourself well first. I conceived (in 1980!) and didn't know I had hypothyroid. I had had 4 miscarriages previously and for this 5th pregnancy I had decided to have 8 months bed rest. I got through the pregnancy, but then my hypo (it turned out to be Hashimotos) really kicked in when my son was born. It was like post natal psychosis. Pregnancy and birth can bring on thyroid illness so if you know already, get your body ready for pregnancy. Good luck
I think you should try and reduce the thyroid antibodies for your own benefit, never mind anything else. But reducing the numbers may also reduce your risks of miscarrying if you get pregnant.
With high antibodies your thyroid hormone levels may fluctuate a lot, giving you high hormone levels one week, before they drop like a stone the next week, then back to high levels again, as your thyroid becomes more and more damaged.
Eventually you will become permanently hypothyroid, this is probably unavoidable for people with Hashi's. But in the meantime you can slow down the damage, reduce the swings in your levels of thyroid hormones, reduce your risk of being accused by doctors of abusing your Levo and having it taken away altogether, by reducing your antibody numbers.
SlowDragon gave you lots of good info on this in your last post :
I know this is an old post but I just wanted to follow up to see if you had any luck? I’m in the same position and the conflicting information/advice makes it very tricky!
Gluten free diet and taking selenium both help reduce antibodies. I’m in the same position and am given steroids for when I conceive although I’ve never got past 6 weeks yet.
I am now under a proper nutritionist who is managing my supplements for me xx
Unfortunately, there is very little concrete evidence that selenium lowers antibodies. Too many other factors influence antibodies, such as any type of illness, viral, bacterial and fungal infections, injury, exposure to season allergens, toxic substances, food allergies, foods that cause inflammation. If there are underlying things going on in your body that aren't treated and eliminated, or if your thyroid is under medicated, antibodies can remain high.
If you want to try it, best to take inositol as there is one positive study on this combo. I took selenium and inositol daily for years, I've been gluten free for many years and my TPO still rocketed from it's all time low of 1000 (0-60) up to over 6000 several times. It still as not managed to go back anywhere near as low as 1000. This spring it was around 1900, but it's gone back down to 1600. It's fluctuated with illness, injury, infection, or allergens. Even when it was way up into many thousands, I did not have pronounced autoimmune symptoms, probably because I take T3 and T4 and keep my levels optimal. The only time I had serious autoimmune symptoms was in the beginning when I wasn't medicated and also when I was briefly under medicated.
It would be great if selenium was the magic solution. It's strange that it's sometimes recommended with very little evidence that. The few studies show negligible decrease in antibodies by just taking selenium. The are one, maybe two studies showing some promise of lowering thyroid antibodies. As mentioned, this one positive study on reducing antibodies was on selenium being taken with inositol.
hi there, im very happy to update you, no problem. I went strictly gluten free, started selenium supplements and a daily dose of levothyroxine. I got pregnant the first month my TSH had reduced to below 2.5. im Very happy to say all went fine and baby is now 8 months old, perfectly healthy and happy. I did have to fight for good care re levothyroxine and thyroid health during pregnancy as GP knows little about it and is quite dangerously ill-informed. i didnt need steroids or any other medication, but i did see specialist regularly for high risk care due to major issues in my previous pregnancy. my tpo antibodies reduced rapidly at first and have since declined slowly... at last check they were around 80-90, down from over 900 to start off with. im feeling fine these days too i know we have been very fortunate things have just worked out this time, hope all goes well for you too xxx
Thanks so much for your reply, it's very reassuring to hear some good news stories! I have gone gluten free, I've added in Selenium and also on Levo so it sounds like I'm on the right track. I'm so glad it all worked out so well for you
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