Postpartum thyroid fluctuations

[Jenbot78]

Hi, I had my second child three months ago and have had a diagnosis of Hashimotos for the past six years.My thyroid function fluctuated a bit and dose was increased to 150mg (previous dose 125.) I dropped the dose the day after delivery as advised by endocrinologist.

8 weeks postpartum my TSH was 0.05 and I dropped my dose to 100/125 every other day. The reason for this was that my GP and I remembered after my first daughter (2 years ago) that adjusting the dose too much meant it swung the other way.

Now I’m feeling anxious, hungry all the time and hot so think I might be over medicated.

Do people have experience of managing their thyroid function postpartum? I am currently breastfeeding so guess that has an impact too. Should I expect fluctuations and just keep asking GP to tweak dose and test regularly? Or should I be aiming for some sort of stability? If so how do I go about achieving this. I am so fed up with feeling hyper one minute and hypo the next 🙁. Any tips/ideas etc very welcome.

Thanks for reading!

[greygoose]

With Hashi's you certainly should expect fluctuations - that's the nature of the beast. Do you know how Hashi's works? Levels will fluctuate postpartum or not.

[haggisplant]

Hello, I’ve wondered if I’ve had a bit of it going on this year, I’m 18 mo pp.

I actually didn’t think I had any functioning thyroid left however as I have to go up so much during pregnancy.

I couldn’t find any info online but have actually wondered if it’s at all more connected to hormones, blood volume reducing post partum and also resuming periods - I do think my fluctuations and symptoms coincided with periods returning around 1 year. I also noticed crazy ups and downs with supply at times. I can have over supply esp in early days.

Have periods one back yet?

[haggisplant]

If anything I think I needed less until my periods resumed if that makes sense. But obviously that was tricky to predict when bf. It’s definitely linked to weight; I’ve kept my weight on this time and they came back earlier. It was 2 years last time.

Congratulations by the way!

[haggisplant]

PPS: remember that breastfeeding vitamins contain biotin which can affect blood test results falsely.