I have had hypothyroidism for a while and am taking L-thyroxine. I had two missed miscarriages before; prior to trying to conceive, I went to my GP to check my thyroid levels and to see if it was safe to conceive. He said yes, but my TSH levels were 4.5. I became pregnant and had my blood drawn at 9 weeks. I received a call from the hospital informing me that I needed to increase my dosage because the recommended TSH levels should be 2.3, and mine were 4.2. Why didn't my GP inform me of this earlier? Will this affect my pregnancy?
I'm scared because I don't want to have my first scan where they can't see the heartbeat.
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Bille234
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This btf-thyroid.org/thyroid-dis... is some good information on TSH in pregnancy. Your GP should have got your TSH lower before conception but it's important to note that these are ideal levels, the risk increases as TSH gets higher.
You can download the pdf from this study researchgate.net/publicatio... and see the relative risks ("Adjusted Odds") in Table 1. I haven't read this paper but it by an excellent team and so should be reliable.
Most GPs are quite ignorant of thyroid health and sadly this is one reason why miscarriages happen. Hopefully you have increased the levo and your TSH is 2 or less.
Is your hypothyroidism caused autoimmune thyroid disease
When were vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 levels last tested
What vitamin supplements are you taking
Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Pregnancy
Before even considering TTC levels need to be stable
I am based in the UK, but the doctors here are a joke. I am in a high-risk pregnancy group; my first blood tests were taken at 9 weeks. I think it is absurd given my medical condition. I have anemia, but they did not check my ferritin levels, nor my vitamin D3 or other levels. I have started to ask my doctors for the blood results because this situation is becoming ridiculous.
I'm so worried, because I know their negligence will affect my pregnancy. Even about increasing the dose ,how can I know myself to increase the dose ,if I don't know my levels and what levels are dangerous, I'm not the doctor.
You will see on here thousands of us test privately and self supplement to improve and maintain GOOD vitamin levels
B12 and folate…..are critical for baby’s neurological development. You don’t want too little or too much of either
Many patients find brand of levothyroxine is important and not necessarily interchangeable
Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins
If you normally take levothyroxine at bedtime/in night ...adjust timings as follows prior to blood test
If testing Monday morning, delay Saturday evening dose levothyroxine until Sunday morning. Delay Sunday evening dose levothyroxine until after blood test on Monday morning. Take Monday evening dose levothyroxine as per normal
Monitor My Health (NHS private test service) offer thyroid and vitamin testing, plus cholesterol and HBA1C for £65
IMPORTANT......If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 5-7 days before ALL BLOOD TESTS , as biotin can falsely affect test results
In week before blood test, when you stop vitamin B complex, you might want to consider taking a separate folate supplement (eg Jarrow methyl folate 400mcg) and continue separate B12 if last test result serum B12 was below 500 or active B12 (private test) under 70:
. i can totally understand why you're scared and angry , but hang in there Bille ,,,, yes ideally your dose would have been increased earlier , but you know i was taught as a nursery nurse that developing babies will try to take what they need at our expense. so try your best to think of your baby as stealing all the T4 it needed from you over the past weeks , even if there wasn't quite enough for both of you .
try your best to stay calm and keep moving forwards ,dealing with one day at a time. Worrying about what might have happened already , or what may be about to happen next , is not good for you ,(or the baby)
my grannie used to say , "worrying is useless , it just means you suffer twice " ...very hard to do i know , but very true none the less.
remind yourself every day that many many babies around the world , throughout history are born to women with 'slightly less than optimal' thyroid levels (ie those women who are not even diagnosed hypo , and have no idea at all that they are subclinical hypo) , and many of those babies are just fine.
sending you a big hug .. try and stay positive , and don't worry about what you can't change now.
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