Dosage after childbirth/Latest Results

[Molly161018]

Hello there,

My baby is due in a few weeks time, and I was wondering what the guidance is about decreasing my dose to my pre-pregnancy dose after it is born? I increased from 125mcg to 150mcg of thyroxine, but kept my T3 dosage the same at 12.5mcg.

My latest results are below, which show T4 & T3 to be pretty much middle of the range (see below) - I'm feeling OK so don't think I'd look at changing the dose at this stage, as the obstetrics consultant I'm under has been quite jumpy about my suppressed TSH as it is!!

I think I have read something about retesting 6 weeks after the baby is born...but do they tell you to go back to your normal dose and then they retest (when you've been struggling to cope for 6 weeks!?) or should I stay on the same dose? I'm worried that a new baby and feeding and broken nights will be a bigger strain than ever on my thyroid, so need to be optimally medicated not risk being undermedicated!!

Latest results are as follows:

TSH: 0.12 (0.27 - 4.2)

T3: 5.03 (3.1 - 6.8)

T4: 16.3 (12 - 22)

Inflammation: 1.98 (<5)

Ferratin: 14.6

(13 - 150) (looking at my history, this has dropped consistently since April last year? I eat plenty of iron rich foods so would be glad of some advice on this!)

Folate: 12.45 (> 3.89)

Vit B12: 132 (> 37.5)

Vit D: 127 (50 - 175)

Any advice gratefully received! Thank you

[shaws Administrator]

This is a link from TUK that may be helpful and members who can respond to your post will do so.

thyroiduk.org/having-a-baby/

[Molly161018 in reply to shaws]

Thanks that is very helpful

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Are you currently prescribed any iron supplements

If not, you should be

And important to have full iron panel test for anaemia

b-s-h.org.uk/media/2891/uk_...

Non-anaemic women identified to be at increased risk of iron deficiency should have a serum ferritin checked early in pregnancy and be offered oral supplements if ferritin is <30 ug/l

[Molly161018 in reply to SlowDragon]

No I'm not on any iron supplements...I will contact my midwife to enquire further as to this.Many thanks for your help

[Eddie83]

I don't think TSH=0.12 is a problem; from what I have researched, low TSH isn't an issue until you go below 0.04. (Docs who don't really understand thyroid, make TSH out to be a big deal.)

Ferritin is really too low. Izabella Wentz (thyroidpharmacist.com) believes that an "ideal" value for ferritin is 90. My doc concurs with that; higher values can lead to too much oxidation. After I had enteropathy, I got ferritin up to about 89, by using a chelated iron supplement.