Hypothyroid and pregnant.

[NurseRosie]

Hi everyone, I have recently found out that I am pregnant, I am about 4 weeks. I attended my GP today to let them know and get some advice. All of my friends who have hypothyroidism and have been pregnant have had an immediate increase in their dose. I currently take 150mcg and am completely dependent on my meds, I hardly produce any natural thyroxine. My GP was surprised when I suggested an increase in dose and refused, asking me to come for a blood test in May. I have been googling and found lots of articles that state many women require an increased dose in the first trimester.
Has anyone else had this experience or had an increase?
Should I seek a second opinion?

Put in a complaint about her to the Practice Manager. She's ignoring NICE guidelines and being a complete cow too!! Saying you'll give yourself a miscarriage because she can't be arsed to do her bloody job properly is unforgivable.

I know how serious this can be sadly from personal experience. Please go back as often as it takes to get it taken seriously.

I will. It's not the first problem we have had so think we will change surgeries. Thanks for all of your help and support x

I am at your dreadful treatment by that patronising, ignorant nurse practitioner! I'm hypothyroid myself and sick of slack treatment by GP surgery - even numerous terse letters from my endo seem to make no difference. As Probably said, please do make a written complaint, enclosing print out/cut and paste from NICE guidelines.

If you do change surgeries, hope you find more enlightened treatment in the future.

Also - can you ask for your free T4 to be checked as well? When I was pg with my DD I got referred into the ante-natal endocrinology clinic that was run by one of the consultant obstetricians with a specialist interest in the area. Can you ask GP/midwife to refer you for something similar? Best of luck for healthy, happy pregnancy.

That's shocking treatment. Hope you get a new gp sorted, do you have a mw already?

If you've been taking thyroxin for a while chances are your tsh and t4 levels will be steady and won't be harmful. But you do need to get a doc to sort you out with a higher dose when you can.

Not allocated a midwife this early so stuck with the surgery. Hopefully my bloods will come back ok x

This is an old thread but I thought I would comment in case anyone else looks at it for guidance.

I work as a GP, have hypothyroidism and am trying to conceive.

Guidelines are:

• ideally TSH should be

I know this is a zombie, but thank you Clairettc for giving that advice.

Just going through the battle yet again myself. I'm increasing by 25 at 5 and a bit weeks, tsh has gone to 1.24 from 0.2, and going to ask to get a test in 2-3 weeks. I went through all this with my son 5 years ago. I'm doing this by myself which I don't like. It probably should be a bit more.

I believe, according the the BTF, new pregnancy guidelines are going to be coming out soon, hopefully with lots of press in gp publications.

Please contact the BTF with any issues, write if possible, as they pass any info onto their team of endocrinologists. More info passed on can help them to do more at the professional end.

I hope ttc is going well Claire :)

hi @ekphrasis,

I know the guidelines are that when TTC TSH should be between 0.3-2.5. I def. know this as struggling to conceive and mine is 0.1 and my periods have gone really light so we think this might be contributing - so now cut down on meds again and waiting to see if periods normalise when TSH is normal if not I'll be referred to fertility clinic. Unfortunately our local fertility team won't see people until they've been trying 2 years now. I've also found out I have a raised prolactin! Feeling very fed up with it all!

I know once pregnant slightly over treated is better than under treated - but hope you've been referred to an endocrinologist - congratulations on the pregnancy and best of luck.

xxx

Hi claire - if it helps, I was tsh 1.35 when I conceived ds. It's possible it was a little lower a month or so before ; I later discovered the brand of 100s I was on was faulty and withdrawn. We struggled to get the tsh right throughout my first trimester till I found out about the recall and switched brands (then I went over). There was also a delay getting results at 8 weeks, they were 5.5 despite going up 25 but I didn't find out till 10 weeks and went to 175 then. But, due to all this, by 13 weeks I was tsh 11.

Ds is great and bright and good with numbers so all was fine. I did have a small placenta though and he had iugr. Caught up fine though :)

May I ask why it is that gps tend not to know about thyroid and pregnancy? I'm effectively going to be managing this by myself (unless the gp I'm seeing on Friday is more helpful - I've since changed gp practices. Last ones were great after I had a short battle with nice printouts)

I wish you the best of luck ttc. Do you think the prolactin is linked to slight over replacement?