Underactive Thyroid and TTC

[moonshine25]

Hi all, hoping someone can give some advice or tell me of your experience. I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid (namely Hashimoto's) after the birth of my ds. We want to start TTC soon for baby number 2 and I've been reading all sorts of scary stuff on the internet about the risks in pregnancy etc and differing bits of info on what my TSH and T4 should be before getting pregnant or TTC. My TSH is currently 2.3 but don't know whether I should push for an increase now to get it below 2? Thanks in advance!

Hi there! I live in Germany where the doctors seem to be a lot more knowledgeable about thyroid conditions and also more willing to medicate than in the UK.

Here a gynaecologist and GP would want your TSH under 2 if you are TTC and would medicate to bring it below that as necessary. I would raise it with your Dr now.

Once you are pregnant you need to have your hormone levels checked at regular intervals (and importantly as soon as you get pregnant). Provided you're on the right level of medication it shouldn't cause any issues in pregnancy. But as I expect you've seen, an untreated thyroid issue can cause miscarriage so it's important to keep an eye on it. In both pregnancies I had to increase my medication by 50-100% to keep my TSH under 2.

I have hashimotos. The recommendenation for conceiving is tsh of 2 or under. Your free t4 and free t3 also need to be optimal. With hashimotos, Ideally you would work on getting your tpo antibodies down as low as possible prior to conception. Hashimotos can make it difficult to conceive. I was diagnosed with it 2 years after my son was born. As hashimotos is autoimmune they are many possible triggers and it is tricky to find out what's causing it. My thyroid is optimal and my antibodies are the lowest they have ever been and we are having no luck conceiving a second child. Hopefully the same won't happen to you. Wishing u luck

Thank you both! I've done lots of reading about it and will push for an increase to get my levels below 2. I'm sorry Kohi36 that it's affected you so much. Can I ask please how you lowered your antibodies? I'm now gluten free but not sure what else I can do to try and lower them. Thanks

I highly recommend Your Healthy Pregnancy with Thyroid Disease by Dana Trentini if you haven't read it already. I am finding it super helpful not only in terms of understanding the optimal range to try to get to for conception, but also other risk factors for pregnancy and after birth. It's certainly been a boon in terms of having decent conversations with the endocrine clinic in the maternity wing of the hospital I'm with. I got pregnant when I persuaded my GP to up my dosage of Levothyroxine and levels went below 2 (I also started drinking a lot of veg smoothies at the same time, can't tell if that made a difference to lower my levels or not); I then had my dosage upped again on NHS guidance and went hyperthyroid for a bit, waiting to settle back down on a lower dosage at the moment. It can be a bit swings and roundabouts but as long as you educate yourself on it and keep up to speed with your measurements, I've learned it's all less scary than some parts of the internet would have you think.

For me going gluten free was huge help getting them down. I also completely overhauled my diet and cook nearly all my meals from scratch. We order organic fruit & vege now even though it costs us a bomb. We also got a water filter as they add fluoride to the water where I live and this is a major endocrine disruptor. I take selenium 200 mg a day as this really helps your body to convert T4 to T3. It also lowers your antibodies. I got my antibodies didn't to 70 using diet changes and selenium alone. After going on ndt 6 months ago they are now 50 so think diet is major component rather than medication for autoimmune condition. Hoping to get them under 35 for remission. I think my fertility was compromised by having my left ovary surgically removed two years ago. I didn't realise I had hashimotos until after that operation. If you get your antibodies down low and tsh below 2 you should be able to conceive.