Hashimoto's and Pregnancy

Hi A.,
First as a mother I am devastated for your loss, as are all the other mothers responding to you. I have never had a loss in that matter and cannot imagine the sorrow, so my prayers are with you that you stay strong and have peace. However, although you asked a question of everyone else, I would like to ask you (or anyone else on the site) about your Hashimoto's. I have hypothyroidism, recently diagnosed and recently began Synthroid. For quite a while my husband and I wondered if I had Hashimoto's, however hypothyroid runs in my family quite extensively, so I'm sure I have just your average every day hypothyroidism. But I would like to know your symptoms prior to your diagnosis and how you came to be diagnosed, if you would be okay sharing that with me. I am very interested in finding out more about Hashimoto's specifically. I have 4 daughters (yes, all girls!) and my last was born 7 months ago, 1 month before I turned 40. I have never had any fertility problems. In fact, just the opposite. It seems all my husband has to do is breath on me! And I've had no difficulty carrying them all to term. My only difficulty was being hyperemetic and very anemic every time. If you would be so kind as so share your story with me, I would so appreciate it. Thank you kindly in advance, and if you would rather not, that's okay, too. Being a mother is a gift from God, a huge responsibility and a blessing every day. I truly pray you will be able to experience the amazing adventure again. God bless.

1 mom found this helpful

I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and carried to almost exactly seven months when I fell ill with pre-eclampsia. They had to perform an emergency C-section and my daughter had to live in the hospital for about a month but she's healthy and happy now and I survived ok after a two and a half week stay in the hospital.

I was diagnosed a few years before so I was already medicated prior to conception. I stayed medicated throughout and got a blood test to check my levels every 3 months as per usual.

After the pregnancy I developed some form of eczema on my hands that drives me crazy and they only form of treatment two doctors and one dermatologist recommends is steroid cream.

I honestly think I'm having an autoimmune reaction to the platelet transfusion I received because after they did it I had a terrible allergic reaction and they had to give me drugs to stop it.

Now I think my body is just attacking my skin just like it's attacking my thyroid gland. Something about the surgery and trauma must have triggered some fun little reaction in my body chemistry.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi A.,

I also have Hashimoto's disease and hypothyroid. I now have a wonderful and healthy 3 year old. I had a great doctor during my pregnancy, she checked my thyroid multiple times during the pregnancy, and my medication levels had to be adjusted a few times. I also had to change the med levels during breast feeding and after stopping breast feeding. Make sure your doctor does a TSH test regularly while pregnant as it can change quite alot. I had a mostly natural birth with some pitosin? at the end. The pregnacy went fine the whole way with no problems. Hope this helps.

Hi there!

I have had Hashimoto's disease for 10 years. I had no problem becoming pregnant and became pregnant at age 40 and gave birth 3 days before my 41st birthday. I had a wonderful, healthy pregnancy; didn't even need to have an Amnio, because my blood work was so strong.
My baby is now a healthy 1 year old.
Try your hardest to not "stress" about the Hashimoto factor. Everything will fall into place....

If you need anything or if you have any other questions, please feel free to write whenever you'd like to.

R.

I am so sorry for your pregnancy loss!
Although I don't have Hashimotos Disease I do have hypothyroidisim. I started having trouble after the birth of my second child. It was really bad and I have been on medication for the past 9 years. Since then I have expeirenced 1 miscarriage but also had 2 more healthy children.
A friend of mine diagnosed with Hashimotos gave birth without any complications at age 42 to a very healhy girl. Hang in there, I am sure that everything will work out for you. Have you see an Endocrinologist? That might be something to bring up to your Dr.
Feel free to send me a message if you have any other questions or just need to talk to someone who has gone through a misscarriage as well.

Hi A.,
I am sorry for your loss. I wanted to give you some hope - I am not sure about Hashimoto's but I had thyroid cancer at 19. My entire thyroid was removed and I take medicine to replace it synthetically. I was blessed with a child earlier this year. Good luck. I hope your son becomes a big brother soon!

Yes, I have Hashimoto's and had three successful pregnancies, and that was BEFORE I was on thyroid med. In Hashimoto's, your immune system attacks the thyroid gland, and that should have no effect on the fetus.

As long as you take thyroid hormone replacement, Hashimoto's should have no ill-effects on your health.

Hi A.
A close girlfriend of mine also has Hashimoto's and has two healthy, beautiful boys! Hang in there!
Happy Holidays
N

Hi A., My heart goes out to you.

I noted some of the info you have already received and thought I would share a few thoughts. I work with nutrition and chronic disease. Hashimoto disease is an auto immune disease and can have some of the challenges in toxic body burden and the body's inability to absorb nutrients as well as a toxic liver which is responsible for making the thyroid T levels.

I would like to encourage you to watch a documentary
www.sharethecause.com/live.

It is only 9 minutes and is full of info with respect to what is really happening to our health and that of our children. Please feel free to share with others/

I work with all natural, whole food, supplements that allow the body to remove the toxins.. safe when pregnant and for children... balance the immune system and replenish the body at the foundational level to promote the body's natural process to heal.

The Environmental Working group. www.ewg.org ..human toxome project... did a umbilical cord study and found in utero over 200 toxins running through the babies during development. Some heavy metals, cadnium specifically... mimic estrogen and can cause havoc for women during pregnancy. Also the hormones in milk products cause problems. I encourage you to use hormone free milk products..

If you would like more info on what can be done to get your body healthier for pregnancy, I would be happy to assist you.
You can reach me through the website or at ____@____.com

L. Medina.. mom of 4.. grandma too!
###-###-####

I have had Hashimoto's since I was in 7th grade and am now on my 2nd pregnancy - both after 40. As soon as i became pregnant each time, my OB doubled my thyroid dosage as standard procedure. Everything is going great. I know everyone is different, but it has worked for me.

I do have hypothyroidism and have had 4 pregnancies. I have 3 healthy children. One pregnancy did not work out, but it wasn't due to the hypothyroidism. I am sorry for your miscarriages. I hope you find out soon what may be causing them. I have been taking medication for 22 years. My thyroid was checked every trimester during my pregnancies, and never had to adjust the meds. I think everyone is different with their own situation. Good luck and hang in there.

hello i have hashimoto thyroid. and i have a lovely two year old to prove things do turn out good. she is healthy and wonderful. i am going to try for my 2nd, hopefully this is one example to keep your hopes up..remember do what is best for you and your body. take care of you. question when you get pregnant do you contact your thyroid doctor?? the minute i get pregnant i up my dose and then 10 days after my dosage change i make had an appointment to make sure my levels were ok.. hope this helps

A.
I had two first trimester miscarriages (reasons unknown0 and 1 pregnancy loss at 20 weeks (not due to thyroid) after this I was diagnosed with Hashimoto and started in on medication just as i found out i was pregnant again. I now have a 10 month old baby girl, my little miracle, and am 20 weeks pregnant. All looks great so far. I see my endocronologist every 6 weeks and each time following blood tests.
I hope this helps.
M. B.

I can only imagine what it is like to have faced multiple losses. I'm sorry.

I have Hashimoto's and was on thyroid meds for around 10 years before becoming pregnant. Before trying to conceive for the first time, I made sure my TSH was low (under 2.0) and not just in the "normal" range, which seems likely to actually be higher than what is truly normal. I had no trouble conceiving and had a healthy pregnancy and baby. My endocrinologist wanted me to alert him as soon as I was pregnant so that he could increase my thyroxine dose.
When I got pregnant a second time (a couple of weeks before I turned 40), I wasn't as on top of my TSH, but even with it starting out higher than I liked, I conceived and had a healthy pregnancy. (My OB did monitor my levels and increase my dose per my request after about 7 weeks.)
I agree with the others that treated Hashimoto's is unlikely to cause problems with pregnancy.
There is the fear though that something else autoimmune could be affecting your ability to stay pregnant. I had lots of fears because of my age and various autoimmune stuff, but never pushed beyond my OBs' lack of concern because I had no pregnancy problems.