Hypothyroidism anyone?

L Jane · June 2016

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 5 months ago. I have 3 other children and as we were thinking about #4 I noticed something felt "off" with my cycles. I also felt terrible, so I went to my Obgyn for testing. Well, now I'm taking Synthroid and my levels are all optimal. I know I need to schedule an appt with my Endo asap as well because they need to monitor my thyroid closely during pregnancy. I was just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat? I really don't know much about the risks of being hypo while pregnant... Besides what I googled of course.

WinchesterGirl · June 2016

Hi there, I'm not in the same boat exactly, but I just wanted to say hi and offer some reassurance! DH has had thyroid problems for several years - Started with Graves disease, then on to having his thyroid destroyed, and he is now hypo.

There was even a 1-2 year period in there that we were expressly forbidden TTC. However, they've now got him sorted and evened out his levels. I asked the OB about it, and she said that as long as his levels are now stable, there is no difference between our baby and any baby conceived by someone with normal functioning thyroid.

For you, definitely make your endo appt. ASAP, and stay on top of your levels. They will monitor you closely, and make sure you stay in range. It is awesome that they were able to get you back to normal levels so quickly!

paigeed · June 2016

I am hypo as well. I'm on levothyroxine though. So far, my RE just said to continue taking it through pregnancy but I plan to ask more about if it needs to be monitored and how often at my appointment in Friday. The RE also said that I will likely need to up my doseage as the pregnancy progresses but right now my levels were okay to stay on the same dose.

Other er than that I have no idea about the complications/risks that could occur from being hypothyroid. I honestly didn't think there were any.

MagicMikki · June 2016

I also have hypothyroidism and take Levo. I was also instructed to make an appointment with my doc to monitor my hypo closely during pregnancy, and perhaps adjust/increase my dose a little. I have yet to do that. I agree with others that I don't think there are any risks with having hypothyroidism and being pregnant.

L Jane · June 2016

MagicMikki said:

I also have hypothyroidism and take Levo. I was also instructed to make an appointment with my doc to monitor my hypo closely during pregnancy, and perhaps adjust/increase my dose a little. I have yet to do that. I agree with others that I don't think there are any risks with having hypothyroidism and being pregnant.

Thanks everyone! Yes, from what I gather there are risks if your hypothyroidism isn't being treated. As long as your levels are where they should be, there shouldn't be a problem. I also did read about possibly needing a higher dosage while pregnant.

varimama · June 2016

I'm not hypothyroid exactly, my thyroid was removed because I have thyroid cancer and my endocrinologist stressed that it is really important to get your levels checked frequently during the first trimester because the baby isn't able to produce their own thyroid hormone yet. It's common for people with thyroid issues to need to increase their dose though not always. Once you reach the second trimester the baby is able to start producing their own and it becomes less critical. As long as you have a doctor monitoring your levels you should be fine. I also have issues with my parathyroid glands which control calcium absorption in the body so that is another thing that needs to be monitored until the baby can produce it's own.

Gingersnap · June 2016

I'm currently on Synthroid for hypothyroidism.
I wasn't hypo until after I had my daughter.
My dr is doing labs to monitor my levels throughout this pregnancy.
I haven't heard of any negative effects on a pregnancy either.

16isourluckynumber · June 2016

Had my thyroid removed after my first baby. For my second I was monitored closely and had to almost double my dosage by the end of pregnancy. I'm going in for blood tests every month this time too.

hudson1029 · June 2016

I'm hypo and on synthroid and cytomel. My doctor ran my labs the moment I told him I was pregnant and everything looked good. We're retesting every 4 weeks and will likely bump up the dose.

adriennep7 · June 2016

Hi all! I have hypothyroidism as well. It is extremely important to monitor your levels throughout pregnancy. Women with off levels have a way higher chance of miscarriage than others. I had my first miscarriage at 11 weeks. Even though the doctors say it is from genetic reasons, I believe it was my thyroid hormones. My doctor didn't up my medicine or even check my labwork results until my 2nd appointment when it was too late. My first appointment was at 7 weeks and we had seen the heartbeat. This pregnancy I am pushing for labwork to be done and the results to be read right away. My doctor has already upped my dose of synthroid.

paigeed · June 2016

@adriennep7 How often should levels be checked? Monthly? Bi-weekly? I was planning to ask this Friday at my appointment, but didn't know a good frame of reference. They didn't check my levels when I did betas. My last level drawn was in April and it was 1.97.

adriennep7 · June 2016

I'm not really sure. I'm asking my doctor to check once a month. He had wanted to check it every 6 weeks.

varimama · June 2016

Mine said once a month and that it was ok to wait until my 6 week appointment for the first one.

Beauxbaton · June 2016

I have Grave's disease, but did radioactive iodine ablation and have an almost completely dead thyroid, so now I'm hypo. I take 150mcg daily when I'm not pregnant. With my first pregnancy at 8 weeks my doctor doubled my medicine. So I was taking 300mcg and felt great. Then around during 28 weeks I switched doctors, had labs redrawn. After about 20 or 24 weeks the baby starts creating their own thyroid hormone, so your body won't need to produce as much. So around 28 weeks my new oblog lowered my levo to 250. Felt great for the rest of the pregnancy.

My second pregnancy was a mess. My ob wanted to take care of my thyroid from the beginning. At 8 weeks he dI'd labs and my levels were 4 point something. And I was having major hypo symptoms. And he just wouldn't raise my medication past 200. Then he sent me to an endo who lowered my medication and when I had my tsh checked 2 weeks later they were 12.43! And finally she upped it to 300 and I felt fine. Then I switched obs and had my levels checked around 28 weeks and lowered my meds to 225 and felt fine.

Uncontrolled thyroid disorders can be detrimental to a pregnancy and development of a baby. I've actually had weekly biophysicals with bother my pregnancies at the end because thyroid disorders can cause growth issues. So that's why it's really really important to stay on top of your levels. I called my doctor today to tell them I'm pregnant and they upped my levo to 175. I'll get my levels checked in 2 weeks. And then again every 4 weeks after that unless I'm having symptoms.

Tl;dr: get levels checked every 4-6 weeks depending on the severity of your hypothyroidism. Keeping levels in check is super important.

L Jane · June 2016

Thanks everyone!!! I can't believe there are so many of us here with hypo. Im going to call my Endo today and see when they want me to come in for my labs. I was there about 5 weeks ago, so I'm pretty sure My levels are in range right now. It's so, so obvious to me when things aren't right with my thyroid because the symptoms are awful. (As you all know!)

I also need to have my iron level checked. My levels were low when I was first diagnosed with the hypo. I've since been taking an iron supplement, but I'm still losing more hair than normal which is concerning. (I've also read hair loss is a symptom of the Synthroid?)

Beauxbaton · June 2016

I've never had hair loss as a symptom of the medication, and I've taken both synthroid and levo (which is just generic synthroid.) But hairloss is always one of my first hypo symptoms.

mrszoess · June 2016

I'm lurking from October but I had the same situation as @adriennep7

tw

at my first beta they saw my tsh was extremely high and the baby wasn't growing as it should. my numbers didn't double and we lost him at 11 weeks.

now im on synthroid and my 23 Weeker is kicking my as I type.

L Jane · June 2016

Ok... My Endo is having me come in Monday to have my labs checked. I've been taking Biotin for my hair and the nurse said that can throw off my results, so I have to hold it until I go Monday. Interesting.

adriennep7 · June 2016

Thank you for sharing that! I'm trying to stay hopeful this time since my doctor is actually monitoring my levels and has increased my medicine! If you don't mind me asking @mrszoess , do you know what your TSH level was the first time?

mmg410625 · June 2016

My doc said to check monthly. "They" say that if your TSH is under 2.5 then you are okay. Ideally shooting for 1 to 1.5 is best. Had a miscarriage with my first, now my synthroid is increased and I'm 7+5....fingers crossed!

mrszoess · June 2016

@adriennep7 it was 5 during my first mmc, almost 8 at the second and is now under 1.5 as of 2 months ago.

adriennep7 · June 2016

Ah! That makes me nervous. I feel like 5 and 8 are high, but not that high. When I found out I was pregnant my level was almost 10. He upped my medicine the next day. I work in a lab so I've been testing it every few days. Three weeks have passed and it's finally down to 2.98. I'm just hoping this is low enough. It seems like it takes forever to correct itself!

mmg410625 · June 2016

@adriennep7 I work in the lab as well. It takes about 3 weeks for your TSH to stabilize after a dose change. The top end of our normal reference range for TSH is 4.20, if you are pregnant it should be much lower, like less than 2.00!

adriennep7 · June 2016

Thanks!! I will test again on Wednesday, since that will be exactly the 3 week mark and call my doctor if it isn't below 2. Hopefully he will up my dose even if it's still in the reference range for "normal". He isn't an endocrinologist so I am not sure how much knowledge he has on this subject.

L Jane · June 2016

I went and had my labs done yesterday. My tsh was .05. Obviously, this is pretty low! The last time I went in (2 months ago) my tsh was .03, so my Endo lowered my Synthroid dosage from 75mcg to 50mcg.

The nurse said my dr wants to leave my dosage as it is for now.

mrszoess · June 2016

I'm actually headed to get bloodwork now for my rheumatologist and nephrologist. I'll let you know by the end of the week

my dosage since my bfp in February has been .125.

Beauxbaton · June 2016

I haven't had my thyroid checked yet during this pregnancy. But the last 2 times I had my tsh checked it was 1.24. They told me they like it to be under 1 during pregnancy. I'm looking forward to getting my levels checked in a couple weeks

L Jane · June 2016

@mrszoess Your synthroid dosage has been .125?

mmg410625 · June 2016

Everyone keep in mind that depending on your thyroid condition your Dr. determines your dosage based off of TSH and T4! Everyone's hormones can act a bit differently.

mrszoess · June 2016

yeah I started with 75 prior to my mmc and then he upped me to 125 when I got my bfp this time bc my numbers were around 2.5 and he wanted them lower.

L Jane · June 2016

mrszoess said:

yeah I started with 75 prior to my mmc and then he upped me to 125 when I got my bfp this time bc my numbers were around 2.5 and he wanted them lower.

Got ya. When you said .125 I thought you meant a really low dose. I started on 75 and went down to 50. My tsh was .05 so I thought maybe my doc would lower my dose again, but I wasn't sure how low the Synthroid dose could even go. My tsh was never all that night before I was medicated...I think it was a little over 6.

Gingersnap · June 2016

Since you guys are more educated about this than I, my TSH is 3.07 and my T4 is 1.1
I'm currently on 75 MCG of synthroid.
Should I push for an increased dose?

L Jane · June 2016

I think I would push for an increased dose, @Gingersnap I'm definitely not an expert as my diagnosis is relatively new...but I think when you're pregnant they like for your TSH to be a little lower?

How do you feel? I know when my levels aren't optimal I feel like crap! It's probably hard to distinguish what's pregnancy related or thyroid related right now though.

varimama · June 2016

@Gingersnap I'd definitely ask about an increase. Before pregnancy my doctor likes to keep my TSH below 0.5 and T4 around 1.5. I'm sure depending on your reasoning for it they may want different values but 3 is a little high. Not high enough to panic but it warrants a conversation.

Gingersnap · June 2016

I see the PA in two weeks so I'll talk to her about it.
Thanks!

TarHeelBex · June 2016

I'm also hypo after having half of my thyroid removed in 2008 (due to recurring large cysts in the right half). I didn't need to go on meds until right before DD was conceived in 2010 and stayed on 25 mcg the entire pregnancy without any issues. For the past few years my levels have been all over the place which unfortunately has had an effect on my ovulation and inability to get pregnant again (besides 1 mc last year). My HCG has been great (~1.0) the past six months but when I had my levels checked with my beta bloodwork, they had jumped to 2.7 (T4 was still well within normal range). RE upped my dosage from 88mcg to 100mcg and I'll get my levels checked next week before going in for next appt. The hope is to get the HCG back around 1. I plan to have my levels checked at least every month to make sure everything is in a safe range!

varimama · July 2016

So I just got my levels back from my first test and they are basically identical to my last test in April. Has anyone with hypothyroidism or a thyroid that was removed had their levels not change even during pregnancy? Now I'm kind of freaking out that maybe something is wrong with the baby...

Knottie16288692 · July 2016

My levels never changed with my last pregnancy. I've had thyroid problems (hypo) for three years now. I was on synthroid ( I think thats it) but I started seeing my endo and he put me on Thyroid Armour! Amazing results! It's a little more expensive but its definitely worth it to me. Before I still had hair loss and a lack of energy. Periods were every six months or so... it was bad. Now my hair is thick and full and my energy level is back to what it was before I had thyroid problems. Im still irregular but not as bad. Your OB can check your thyroid levels too because most times pregnancy does affect your levels.

L Jane · July 2016

I wish my Endo would put me on Armour. I've heard so many great things about it! My levels are in range and optimal...but I'm still having hair loss. It's so frustrating! My iron is in the 40s...came up from about 14 I believe. (Which was low). So maybe that's the problem.

Knottie16288692 · July 2016

L Jane said:

I wish my Endo would put me on Armour. I've heard so many great things about it! My levels are in range and optimal...but I'm still having hair loss. It's so frustrating! My iron is in the 40s...came up from about 14 I believe. (Which was low). So maybe that's the problem.

My levels have been pretty consistent since being on it. Some doctors have never heard of it or they think it's the same. I can swear by it. My sister basically doesn't have a thyroid gland. She's been that way since she was 8. By the time she was in her 20's she was pretty much bald. She was thinking about buying a wig when I told her about this endo I had been seeing and once she got on the medicine her hair started growing back. It's not as full as it once was but she's definitely not bald anymore!

16isourluckynumber · July 2016

Saw my endo at 4 weeks and my levels had not changed. Saw her again yesterday at 8w5d and I needed an increase from .137 to .150.

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