I’ve managed to get pregnant after getting my levels correct on t3 only. (Big yay!)
I’m worried that when I go through antenatal I’ll be referred to an Endo who will want me to change my thyroid meds or won’t help me monitor t3 levels. I also have suppressed tsh which could alarm them.
I wanted to know anyone else’s experience of nhs maternity care on t3, and also particularly if anyone has experience of Burnley or Calderdale endos or maternity services while on t3. I have the choice of the two so any advice there would be helpful.
Thanks so much
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Frances0008
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Congratulations!! I take t3 and T4 and have surpressed TSH...and I had a baby 3 months ago.
I was under an obestrics consultant for the duration of my pregnancy (or a team...I never saw the actual consultant or the same person twice??) And all they could talk to me about was my surpressed TSH and ask if I was going to stop self medicating with t3 - but when I questioned them as to whether it would harm my baby (knowing that it wouldn't) they had no answers...
One thing I kept telling them was I didn't believe I would have got pregnant without the t3 or if I had I wouldn't have coped with the pregnancy or looking after the baby afterwards.
You have to stick to your guns and remember that you know more than they do about t3 (this forum is amazing for information!!)
They couldn't tell me anything helpful, they just looked at blood results and queried the TSH. If you look back at my posts you will see one where I let rip about breastfeeding - I had major struggles with this, and my baby lost too much weight and ended up in hospital again...i was told in the end by a feeding specialist that I had low supply due to my thyroid issues...but I have since puzzled over why the consultant team hadn't given me any useful information such as this, which could have saved a lot of stress and heartache, rather than just look at blood tests and question taking t3.
Thank you so much for replying. May I ask with the breastfeeding, was it that your levels were too high or too low that reduced your milk? I also struggled to breastfeed my first child five years ago when I was first diagnosed and was under medicated. Thank you.
I think my T3 and T4 levels were good at the time, as I was self medicating and regularly testing, so I don't think that was related - If I understood rightly what the specialist told me, it was more because I had hypothyroidism in my teens that not much milk tissue had formed, and she didn't hold out much hope that I'd be able to improve my supply much, and she was right...
You could also state that levothyroxine (T4) is an inactive hormone that should convert to T3 and it is T3 that is the active hormone required in our millions of T3 receptor cells and heart and brain contain the most.
They try their best, due to the cost of T3 to put patients back onto T4. Those of us who cannot improve on T4 do so on T3 or NDT (which has now been withdrawn).
They also have no knowledge of what hypothyroidism actually means. Neither are they aware of any clinical symptoms which should be resolved with T3 if T4 isn't improving health.
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