THYROID DISEASE AND PREGNANCY

In a post last week, I wrote about how having a thyroid condition can affect your fertility.

http://onereachinganother.blogspot.com/2011/06/thyroid-disease-and-fertility.html

For this post I will focussing on having a thyroid condition and being pregnant. Having a thyroid condition means that you either have hypothyroidism (having an under-active thyroid gland) or hyperthyroidism (having an overactive thyroid gland).

Pregnant women who are experiencing tiredness and weight gain, because these are some of the usual signs of pregnancy, will often not think that these symptoms could be associated with hypothyroidism. A blood test, measuring your TSH level, is the best way to know if you have hypothyroidism.

If you have been diagnosed with this condition, then your doctor will look at treating you with thyroid hormone medication to normalise your thyroid functions. This medication is completely safe to take during pregnancy because it is the same hormone that is produced by the body, for the normal function of the thyroid.

Although hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid condition known to affect pregnant women, your pregnancy can also be affected by hyperthyroidism as well. In the same way that tiredness and weight gain, (signs of hypothyroidism) can be overlooked as just pregnancy symptoms, nervousness, weight loss, nausea, feeling warm among others(all signs of hyperthyroidism) can also be overlooked as mere pregnancy symptoms.

A pregnant women who has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, must seek to have this condition controlled because miscarriages and birth defects very often will occur.  Treatment includes taking antithyroid medications, which will cut down the thyroids overproduction of hormones.

For much more on this subject, please visit the site below:-

http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/thyroid/thyroid-problems-pregnancy

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