Thyroid result - please advise, I'm so upset

[HowAboutNo]

I begged for them to check my thyroid a few months ago because I felt something wasn't right. Had the result and my tsh was 2.9, t4 was 15.5. Finally saw a consultant last week at 22 weeks and she said that this was borderline and ordered a blood test again on the same day.

Almost a week later, I've just called and been told my tsh is now 3.4 and my t4 is 13.2. The midwife on the phone said this was fine - but the consultant last week said anything above 3 is not okay.

I am sure I am right that this is not okay - I'm now 23 weeks pregnant and on NO medication for this. I'm so scared for my baby.

Any advise? Am I right?

I suggest you see your GP and get an urgent referral to a endocrinologist

Bloody NHS is all I can say.
I had my first baby here, no checks were done on my thyroid despite telling them my family have a history of problems.
Had my second baby in europe, thyroid checks done on the very first term, doctor told me it is very important to give medication for mums thyroid problems to avoid issues on the baby. During the first term is when the baby's brain is being formed.
I am sure your baby is absolutely fine, but please insist that they give you al there results and medication.

A friend has sent me the link to this as I know a bit about thyroids in pregnancy.

Firstly, your bloods look alright to me and the chances of this doing anything to your baby are absolutely minimal.

The targets we have for thyroid disease in pregnancy are slightly different from 'normal', but even if you did have thyroid disease, your results are not far off at all.

Normally, we want TSH to be 0.5-4.5, with T4 10-23 (this is a rough guide, all labs have their own specific reference ranges). In pregnancy where people have thyroid disease, the range is something closer to TSH less than 2.5 with T4 in the upper half of the normal range.

The guidelines we use are www.endocrine.org/~/media/endosociety/Files/Publications/Clinical%20Practice%20Guidelines/Thyroid-Exec-Summ.pdf

Please do not panic (easy for me to say, I know!). I don't think your bloods like this would contribute to you feeling unwell or have any negative impact on the baby, but I would suggest that you speak to your consultant about your worries and see if they think it would be helpful to recheck your blood tests in another 6 weeks.

Hope that is of some help.

My consultant says his patients tend to feel better with tsh around 1 and t4 in low teens. I would ignore your midwife and go back to your consultant for further discussion on your results. In my experience midwives and GPS know very little about thyroid problems or what results should be during pregnancy.

Thank you for the quick responses, having a little meltdown over this today.

Dinosnores thank you - I am having repeat bloods in 5 weeks (which were requested before I knew these results) and it's good to know that they aren't terrible results. I'm just so pissed off that I've had to chase this down and no one has bothered to check my results since last week.

I have no idea what the implications are for the rest of my pregnancy. I have called my GP and someone is calling me back as I need to get a grip on this. So angry

Implications for the rest of your pregnancy are pretty minimal if your blood tests stay like this. I'd guess (not knowing you and not knowing your full medical history etc) that it might just involve checking bloods every 6-12 weeks, perhaps an extra growth scan. The chances of this affecting anything are very, very slim.

I am not going to tell you not to worry, because, as I well know for this and previous times, pregnancy can make us lose a little perspective when pregnant ;-) but I am really not very concerned about your results.

Hope the GP can reassure you.

In pregnancy, my endocrinologist wants my TSH no higher than 2.0 (4.0 is his more usual cutoff when not pregnant). Mine hovered a bit above 2.0 in the first trimester, until my medication was increased.

I would advise that you see an endocrinologist as soon as possible to get your numbers down a bit.

Do you have hypothyroid or Hashimoto's?

www.partnersinpregnancy.ca/pipc-patient-info/understanding-hypothyroidis.pdf

I haven't ever been formally diagnosed with hypothyroidism - I have had my suspicions and pushed for these tests.

Thank you Dino for the reassurance, I really appreciate it.

You don't have hypothyroidism. Your blood tests are very acceptable.

In pregnancy, I people with thyroid conditions, we do aim for TSH lower than we do normally as stopgap's case, but I really don't think an endocrinologist would give you treatment based on these results in the absence of pre-existing thyroid disease.

Thank you so much Dino, feeling more relaxed about it tonight. Have arranged to speak to the consultant tomorrow but based on what you've said, I'm feeling so much better so thank you

Hi, as others have said your bloods are borderline as a worst case scenario but you should go and get reassured by gp. I am hypothyroid and eventually saw an endicrionologist who said that tsh under 5 really was not an issuer. Mine was about 8 when I got pg (doc said many have far higher) and didn't get below 3 (thanks to thyroxin) until the last few weeks. Ds is perfect.

I have hypothyroidism and although you are in the normal ranges your TSH ideally should be under 2. There is a lot of campaigning going on across the EU to get that reduced from 4 to 2 as even above 2 you can feel completely off. It is very easily treated but unfortunately gps are clueless about it and you really need to go to a specialist. Ask your consultant for advice. Chances are with your levels all is fine (my TSH was at 40 to give you an idea, but I had to wait for it to go that bad before I got simple medication!) but equally if you know something is wrong then you should follow your instinct. Good luck :)