Anyone with an overactive thyroid and pregnant?

[Sussexbysea]

Morning all,

Anyone on here pregnant and have an overactive thyroid?

Found out I’m pregnant this morning, so happy!!

I’m on some medicine to help control my thyroid and the consultant told me not to get pregnant and I was on the pill but somehow it’s happened!!

Congratulations!

I’ve got an over-active thyroid, and Graves.
I have DD3 and DS9months.

I was consultant-led rather than midwife-led for my appointments, but other than more scans and blood tests this didn’t make too much of a difference as my thyroid was relatively stable. I actually felt less symptomatic when pregnant, but have suffered more since having DS as my TS4 has spiralled a couple of times.

I gave birth in the birth centre despite being consultant-led as they felt my actual birth was low-risk, but had to stay in hospital for 48 hours with the babies to check they didn’t have any Graves symptoms. They then had a couple of hospital appointments, but we’re fortunately absolutely fine. I’m not sure actually if this is the case for everyone who is over-active or just Graves.

Wishing you the best of luck, and happy to answer any questions if I can.

Oh, and I would speak to your GP as soon as you can to let them know you are pregnant. I got my medication change straight away (can’t remember if higher or lower) so it is worth making them aware, especially if you had been advised to not get pregnant.

Congratulations

Under active (so I’m aware not the same at all!) but also lots of extra blood tests and an ultrasound at one point to check it. Same as PP; struggled to get it under control, DS is now one and even though my levels were all over the show in pregnancy it didn’t affect me much, worse since he’s been born. And it’s still not right (Covid stopped the blood tests and now I’m struggling the most so know my medication needs changing).

if you are on carbimazole definitely speak to your GP today. They may well need to get specialist advice, and this could include stopping it altogether, reducing the dose, or changing to a different medication. If you have a way to contact your consultant I would also get a message to them.

Best wishes, hope things go well for you.

Thanks everyone 💗💗💗

@Bunnylove83 my consultant has called me back and is sending me in for an urgent blood test and getting me booked in with his antenatal team. Looks like I’ll be consultant led too.

My daughter was an easy pregnancy, no extra appointments or scans. So this pregnancy will be really different.

Congratulations! I’m 23 weeks with dc3 and was diagnosed with Graves’ disease a few months ago. I was told I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant and to not try until my thyroid was stable but as we had been unsuccessfully trying for a while I didn’t think it would happen. I was already on Propylthiouracil. You need to be put on this straight away as the other medication isn’t recommended in the first trimester. I had blood tests at 5 weeks which showed that my thyroid had gone under active due to being over medicated (thyroid function improves during pregnancy). I was taken off all medication and 4 weeks later was overactive again and put back on a very low dose of Propylthiouracil. In my second trimester I was switched to a low dose of Carbimazole. My thyroid has been stable for a couple of months now and the early ups and downs don’t seem to have affected the baby/pregnancy although they were stressful at the time. I’m joint midwife and consultant led and have 3 growth scans in the third trimester, bloods are done every 4-6 weeks to check my thyroid levels and I’ll see a consultant at 28 weeks. I actually feel better than I have in months because my thyroid is stable although I’ve been warned that it will likely get worse after birth.

Congratulations 💐

I was diagnosed with Graves at 8 weeks pregnant with DC2 after months of ignoring/normalising horrendous symptoms and was admitted straight to hospital as was really quite unwell.

Was given propylthiouracil and monitored closely through pregnancy with extra growth scans etc. DS was born small and with an overstimulated thyroid gland but the hormones left his system quickly and he has been 100% fit and well since.

I was switched onto carbimazole and after a few years of the inevitable see-saw of overactive to underactive symptoms (I felt a million times worse on carbimazole than at my worst with Graves) and my consultant pushing for radioactive iodine treatment or thyroidectomy (both of which I heartily resisted) I became a bit non-compliant and ended up stopping all meds myself as felt well. All bloods since have been normal (borderline hyper at worst) so now consider myself in remission.

Good luck with your pregnancy 💜

That’s great that they have responded so quickly.
My actual pregnancies were good and the scans were nice to see, so hopefully you won’t find things too different to your first time with your daughter.

@ACatCalledLola @QuentinQuarantino

I’ve been propylthiouracil for about a month and had blood tests yesterday to see how my body has reacted to them. I’m only on 200mg a day so it’s pretty low. I don’t have graves luckily.

The hospital think I’ve had thyroid issues for about two years and they think I had a thyroid attack two years ago and that’s what triggered it all off. I kept being fobbed off by the doctors and they said I had flu. My GP is crap!!

I’m just waiting for the consultant to arrange my first appointment with the antenatal team, guess it’s just a waiting game for my first appointment.

When did you have your first appointment?

It’s really nice having you ladies share your positive experiences, thank you x

Congratulations OP

I’m not sure if this is helpful or not but I thought I’d add it anyway. My mum had an overactive thyroid and although it was 1990 (And I’m not sure what her medication situation was) when she was pregnant with me, I was born without any issues that way, and touch wood up to present day I haven’t developed anything related to her having that. She’s since had the radioactive iodine treatment

@Sussexbysea I was on the same dose as you. It made me go under active pretty quickly after my pregnancy started so you might find the same thing.
I went to the gp for initial blood tests as soon as I knew I was pregnant. I contacted the endocrinology team at my local hospital the same day and said I needed an urgent appointment because I was pregnant so couldn’t wait until my next scheduled appointment. They got me an appointment with the pregnancy endocrinologist a few days later. This was a couple of weeks before lockdown so things may be slower now but if your trust is anything like mine then you have to be a bit forceful and insist it’s important to get seen anyway.

@ACatCalledLola fingers crossed. I’ll let you know