Underactive thyroid

[Hellohello24601]

Hi everyone,

I was recently diagnosed with an underactive thyroid and have been prescribed 25mg levothyroxine.

It’s only been 5 weeks, but I’ve noticed these changes in my cycle:

1. Last cycle was three days shorter, usually 30 days like clockwork but this was 27
   

1. Severe ovulation pains.
   

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? We’re going to start ttc this summer and I’m concerned about fertility issues. I also wonder if the thyroxine has kick-started ovulation (which possibly wasn’t happening due to thyroid) and am concerned the pains indicate endometriosis? I had severe pains when I was 15 (sick on my period) but was put on the pill. Haven’t been on hormonal contraception in a couple of years and haven’t experienced pain so thought I outgrew it, but worried now I just wasn’t ovulating.

Would love any experiences or help!

Thanks

[Whereismyblind]

Yeah I have an underactive thyroid and my cycle always gets unpredictable (shorter usually) and heavier when my dose needs to be adjusted. My gynae said that the thyroid affects your menstrual cycle.

Also, it can take a few months after starting thyroxine for your levels to stabilise.

[GeneLovesJezebel]

I couldn’t get pregnant and discovered I had sub-clinical hypothyroid.
I was pregnant 12 months after starting the thyroxine.

[Hellohello24601]

Ah congrats that’s lovely and reassuring to hear :)

Did you find thyroxine altered ovulation and pain at all?

[GeneLovesJezebel]

I can’t remember as that baby is 16 now !

[Whereismyblind]

Op could it be that you actually haven't been ovulating but now are?

I was similar to gene and was having trouble conceiving and it turned out my dose needed to be adjusted. I remember reading somewhere that an underactive thyroid does something to the luteal phase (shortens or lengthens it?).

[MyOtherCarIsAPorsche]

I'm not sure that it stops ovulation.

My mother had 12 miscarriages before it was discovered that she had an under active thyroid.

I had one MMC. I was told that if TSH is high (indicating under active) then the hormone prolactin is high. Prolactin is high when breast feeding and this can prevent pregnancy from implanting/progressing.

I was initially on 50mcg until the miscarriage - the consultant then tripled the dose to 150mcg. I then conceived quite quickly and had a successful pregnancy. (In fact I ended up with three children under 3 yrs.)

It's a fairly straightforward condition to correct.

[WarriorN]

I've been hypo most of my life. Periods were always light and I actually never really noticed much difference between when hypo or ok, they were always 25 days for sometime, my sisters were too and she doesn't have hypothyroidism. They've been worse post children and more irregular.

I conceived easily with that cycle but when we ttc I think I was starting to get slightly irregular periods from peri menopause (late 30s)

Best tip for conception is to dtd every other day from around day 7 of cycle till past mid cycle.

Some people do get ovulation pains and it could be your system kicking in again? I'd track and watch and see.

The British thyroid society has excellent information for pregnancy and conception.

Your tsh should be around 0.5-1. Both adjusting dose and symptoms settling can take 2-3 months each time. So I would wait 2-3 months after you know you're on a stable dose before ttc. This is to make sure you're definitely ovulating good quality eggs.

I'd also take a good conception vitamin now as that also can take 2-3 months to properly kick in. But take well away from thyroxine as it will contain iron and calcium and some other things that might affect absorption (4 hours).

Always get blood tests in the morning as early as you can and don't take thyroxine until after the test.

When pregnant the advice is to raise 25-50 immediately and then get a blood test a couple of weeks later iirc. However, that may depend on your current dose as if your thyroid is working it may be ok. Tsh should remain low throughout so regular blood tests are a must. I found weeks 6-14 were when I needed to raise thyroxine the most, then it stabilised. I think I had tests every 3 - 4 weeks till mid pregnancy.

www.btf-thyroid.org/thyroid-disorders-and-pregnancy