No thyroid / IVF - anyone?

[Olivia80]

Hi all,

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant since Dec 2015 with varying degrees of effort and thought! In that time, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had my thyroid removed.

We’ve never obsessed about trying to get pregnant but we’re now at the point where my eggs/fertility is reducing and the GP has said if we want to do IVF, we kind of need to crack on as we may not be eligible by the end of 2018.

I am wondering whether anyone is out there who has no thyroid and has successfully done IVF. What’s it like? How does it make you feel? After just getting back to a point where I feel pretty normal after having my thyroid removed, I have to say the thought of putting loads of chemicals in my body terrifies me.

Anyway, any help/advice/stories gratefully received. Thanks

[SlowDragon Administrator]

What are your current thyroid results?

If you add results and ranges for TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12

Members can advise

NICE guidelines recommend TSH below 2, but with not Thyroid you will need it lower than that

Dr Toft, past president of the British Thyroid Association and leading endocrinologist, states in Pulse Magazine,

"The appropriate dose of levothyroxine is that which restores euthyroidism and serum TSH to the lower part of the reference range - 0.2-0.5mU/l.

In this case, free thyroxine is likely to be in the upper part of its reference range or even slightly elevated – 18-22pmol/l.

Most patients will feel well in that circumstance. But some need a higher dose of levothyroxine to suppress serum TSH and then the serum-free T4 concentration will be elevated at around 24-28pmol/l.

This 'exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism' is not dangerous as long as serum T3 is unequivocally normal – that is, serum total around T3 1.7nmol/l (reference range 1.0-2.2nmol/l)."

You can obtain a copy of the articles from Thyroid UK email print it and highlight question 6 to show your doctor

please email Dionne:
[e-mail]

Prof Toft - article just published now saying T3 is likely essential for many especially with no thyroid

rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...

However they are reluctant to allow T3 during pregnancy, so you may need high FT4 instead

[bantam12]

My sister had 3 ivf babies, she did have a couple of miscarriages in the process and she ended up with twins which wasn't the plan. She had her thyroid op in her teens.

I also have 3 ivf children but I had half a thyroid at the time. Ivf is tough going, I had going on 20 rounds to get my 3. There are side effects with all the drugs although I'm sure the drugs have changed since I last did it and obviously it's difficult emotionally especially when it fails.

You have to really want to do it to be able to cope.

Good luck.